Medical Devices Usability, Design and Testing

Usability is critical to medical devices where patients rely on these and may even use them completely independently of any immediate medical aid availability. Medical technology is becoming more complex all the time and is being used to perform increasingly complex tasks. Usability and human factors are becoming increasingly critical to the development of medical devices as the population ages and increasingly complex devices are used by a generation that grew up in a completely different era from the generation developing these tools.

Interpix applies its considerable experience in the usability, design and development of medical devices. We have worked closely with a variety of practitioners in the medical field including the government of Ontario, MDS and the Asthma Society of Canada, as well as our work with the City of Hamilton during the SARS epidemic as documented here and here.

Our usability work with medical devices provides the following benefits to designers, manufacturers and their patients:

• lower number of usage and user errors and misunderstandings
• reduce risk associated with use of the device or technology
• lower training costs and liability
• decrease service and support costs

Interpix Design can provide a usability analysis of pre-market or even post-market products and devices or we can acquire in-depth insight through field testing your device, user testing and interviewing or feedback from focus groups, possibly with the aid of our portably usability lab.

Some essential tips for usability of medical devices are as follows:

• Provide easy readability of labels and displays
• colours and contrasts should contribute to clarity through information redundancy (e.g. red means 'warning')
• Recognize the needs of visually impaired or hearing impaired users in the use of warning tones or lights, etc.
• Provide a variety of feedback including tactile alarms and more wherever possible.

The severity of risk involved in medical devices only serves to indicate the need for deep testing of any medical product to render the kinds of insights that are only available in field-testing and deep user interviews. Contact Interpix Design to find out how we can help you in the development and design of your critical medical device.