ABSTRACT
There is an entire class of medical devices, such as infusion pumps, blood gas analyzers, and ventilators, that could be considered technological centaurs — part mechanical device and part computer. Intermixing mechanical and computer components has greatly extended the functionality of these devices over the past decade, enabling physicians to develop entirely new therapy regimes. It has also led to a shift in the way people interact with those products. Information display and control actions previously assigned to dedicated-purpose meters, counters, knobs, and switches are now handled via interactions with software. The ubiquitous control panel has been replaced with the increasingly ubiquitous computer display and input devices, such as a trackball, arrowkeys, and touch screen. Turning a knob has been replaced by “highlighting and selecting.”
