title: Applying usability heuristics to radiotherapy systems.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Heuristic evaluations have been used to evaluate safety of medical devices by identifying and assessing usability issues. Since radiotherapy treatment delivery systems often consist of multiple complex user-interfaces, a heuristic evaluation was conducted to assess the potential safety issues of such a system.
  
  
  METHODS
  A heuristic evaluation was conducted to evaluate the treatment delivery system at Princess Margaret Hospital (Toronto, Canada). Two independent evaluators identified usability issues with the user-interfaces and rated the severity of each issue.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The evaluators identified 75 usability issues in total. Eighteen of them were rated as high severity, indicating the potential to have a major impact on patient safety. A majority of issues were found on the record and verify system, and many were associated with the patient setup process. While the hospital has processes in place to ensure patient safety, recommendations were developed to further mitigate the risks of potential consequences.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Heuristic evaluation is an efficient and inexpensive method that can be successfully applied to radiotherapy delivery systems to identify usability issues and improve patient safety. Although this study was conducted only at one site, the findings may have broad implications for the design of these systems.
authors: Healthcare Human Factors, Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Alvita.chan@uhn.on.ca
authors: Alvita J
authors: AJ
authors: Chan
authors: Mohammad K
authors: MK
authors: Islam
authors: Tara
authors: T
authors: Rosewall
authors: David A
authors: DA
authors: Jaffray
authors: Anthony C
authors: AC
authors: Easty
authors: Joseph A
authors: JA
authors: Cafazzo
mesh_terms: D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D004869:Equipment Safety; D006801:Humans; D008328:Man-Machine Systems; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D010315:Particle Accelerators / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards*; D017751:Safety Management / Q000592:standards*; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface