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Table 2 The high-level themes and subthemes with participant counts, percentages and examples

From: User perceptions of avatar-based patient monitoring: a mixed qualitative and quantitative study

High-level theme

Subtheme

Examples

Quick recognition of situation (67 participants, 52%)

 

Participant #13: “Quick recognition of problems.”

Participant #51: “Quick recognition of several vital signs simultaneously.”

Participant #53: “Quick visualization of events and the (anatomic) location of the events.”

Participant #111: “Quick recognition of relevant relationships, findings and situations.”

Participant #112: “A picture, a glance and you have the overview.”

Participant #132: “At a glance, holistic recognition of the situation.”

At-a-glance information (42 participants, 33%)

Participant #14: “All parameters at a glance, simple presentation.”

Participant #41: “It is easy to recognize vital signs as either “normal” or “abnormal.””

Visual diagnosis (3 participants, 2%)

Participant #39: “Visual diagnosis is possible. Clearly arranged information.”

Participant #62: “First impression of the patient in a moment.”

Intuitiveness (21 participants, 16%)

 

Participant #49: “Pretty intuitive. The design supports visual persons.”

Participant #100: “Quick to learn. The instructional video is sufficient as an introduction.”

Participant #101: “At a glance, intuitively, much more information than from a standard monitor can be gained.”

Visual design (7 participants, 5%)

Participant #24: “You can interpret pictures quicker than numbers. Situations seem threatening or non-threatening at a glance.”

Participant #59: “…no “translation” of numbers is needed.”

Participant #89: “Color coding facilitates a quick assessment.”

Participant #92: “…one does not need technical knowledge to understand the pictures.”

Participant #99: “Possibly better visualization of vital signs through an avatar than through sober monitor curves.”

Unique design characteristics

Single display (12 participants, 9%)

Participant #16: “Most of the information previously separated into various numbers (sometimes distributed over several monitors) at a glance.”

Participant #32: “Everything in one picture…”

Eye-catching (6 participants, 4%)

Participant #8: “Problems are more eye-catching.”

Participant #51: “Certain vital signs are very impressively displayed and immediately visible or better visible than in the conventional representation.”

Participant #57: “Warning signals are more easily perceivable.”

Participant #107: “Another way to attract the attention of the observer/user.”

Response stimulating (5 participants, 4%)

Participant #6: “The display triggers an alarm reaction quickly.”

Participant #95: “…especially with extreme deviations from the standard you have a strong internal need to take action.”

Absence of numbers (5 participants, 4%)

Participant #5: “Intuitive recognition of the patient situation without becoming set on “numerical values.””

Participant #86: “No number chaos.”

Participant #89: “Less “scattered” data/numbers/values.”

Potential future uses (7 participants, 5%)

 

Participant #13: “…emergency situations.”

Participant #66: “…especially in noisy surroundings.”

Participant #70: “…trauma room…”

Participant #90: “Safe in space, for airlines, cruises, on expeditions and in the military, a huge advantage.”

Participant #124: “Basically, in stressful situations, one may be able to react more adequately to a visual image than to absolute (numerical) values that one must interpret first.”

Participant #128: “A doctor, who monitors several operating rooms can immediately get an idea of a problem.”

Use by non-specialists (7 participants, 5%)

Participant #8: “Simple interpretation also for interested non-specialists. (surgeons).”

Participant #13: “Maybe helpful for beginners (with little monitoring experience).”

Further comments

 

Participant #10: “One glance from a distance enables the assessment of the patient situation.”

Participant #54: “Rapid detection of the patient’s situation also in the ventilated and sedated patient (analogous to the clinical picture, as, for example, in the preclinical assessment).”

Participant #79: “…different brain regions are activated in the users.”

  1. N = 128