Human Factors and Ergonomics in Mobile Computing for Emergency Medical Services

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are an essential part of pre-hospital medical care. While paper-based tools andorganizational workflows are still the status quo in this field of application, they are increasingly replaced orcomplemented by telemedical solutions and mobile computer-based documentation and information systems.Enhanced data quantity and quality as well as a more pervasive flow of information are benefits associated withthese developments. Less frequently it has been emphasized that from an emergency physician’s or paramedic’spoint of view, introducing mobile computing changes the tasks that have to performed and mastered. Consideringboth the system and the personal view is important for developing usable approaches to pre-hospital medical care.Time delays, faulty records or additional workload caused by usability deficiencies and poor human computer-interface design would not be acceptable neither for EMS employees nor patients. Furthermore, they wouldcompromise the overall goals of different stakeholders, e.g. health authorities, insurances, hospitals and public safetyorganizations. Based on the experiences and findings during a two-year project with several EMS, we considerhuman factors and ergonomics in mobile computing for EMS from societal and cultural needs and expectations overgroup and individual behavior to ergonomics of physical devices.