Team awarded £5.8m grant to improve interactive medical devices

A team of researchers led by Professor Ann Blandford from the UCL Interaction Centre (UCLIC) has been awarded a £5.8m grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to improve the usability and safety of interactive medical devices. The EPSRC grant, CHI+MED, (Computer-Human Interaction for Medical Devices) is a major new project to improve devices that have a user interface and are designed to be used by people without extensive technical training, such as infusion devices, glucometers and vital signs monitors. The CHI+MED team involves investigators from Swansea University, City University, the Royal Free Hospital, the Singleton Hospital and Queen Mary, University of London. Medical errors in the UK are estimated to kill or seriously injure 74,000 a year. Many of these involve mistakes using interactive medical devices, so the ease of use and reliability of such devices is critical. Incorrectly setting a device up or incorrectly making readings can result in incorrect treatment, even patient death. Good design can often prevent such mistakes being possible in the first place.