ABSTRACT

Advances in medical informatics offer considerable potential for improving the quality of medical and nursing care in a variety of health care domains. However, there is extensive evidence to suggest that computerised aids in medicine are not always readily accepted or widely used by medical or nursing staff, and often fail to produce the sought-for clinical improvements. The purpose of the observations of the neonatal ward was to obtain a more objective picture of the clinicians’ working habits and performance. Specifically, scientist have conducted a series of investigations in the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) of the Simpson Maternity Hospital in Edinburgh (UK), where a PC based trend monitoring system has been in use for more than 10 years. The goal of these investigations was to study the users’ (physicians and nurses) cognitions and working practices, with a view to evaluating the usability of the currently implemented system and contributing to the design of computerised decision support in intensive care.