DESIGN FOR USER EFFICIENCY IN A DEDICATED ICI VIEWING STATION

The intensive care unit (ICU) is one application where significant ben efit is expected from the use of digital technology in the acquisition , management and presentation of images. However, the potential benefi ts should not be outweighed by disadvantages of current digital techno logy. One of the bottlenecks is the efficiency of image viewing using a workstation, especially if this viewing station is implemented using affordable commonly available hardware. In this paper we describe the design concepts of a relatively low-cost but efficient viewing statio n for chest images, and discuss clinical experience with this system a t an ICU ward. The user interface has been optimized towards the speci fic patterns of ICU image viewing. By anticipating user requests and p reparing images during idle times of the computer, the mean image acce ss time could be reduced by a factor of 4, while most images could be presented instantaneously. Information from the hospital information s ystem (HIS) is exploited in the user interface, and a simplified PACS- HIS coupling has been implemented for the simultaneous presentation of images and reports.