Edworthy Judy Reed, Talbot Natasha, Martin Nicole
School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK.
School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK.
Br J Anaesth. 2025 Jun;134(6):1773-1778. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2024.12.047. Epub 2025 Mar 20.
The international medical device safety standard IEC 60601-1-8 now recommends use of auditory icon alarms. Auditory icon alarms are alarms that act as metaphors for the problems that they signal. These are compared with traditional tonal alarms.
Two sets of three auditory alarms were compared, one consisting of auditory icons and one consisting of variants of older tonal alarms. Volunteer participants were required to monitor three clinical scenarios each lasting 4 min with different problems (cardiac, oxygenation, and technical) occurring during each of these scenarios that triggered alarms multiple times. Participants were required to respond to those alarms while performing a separate vigilance task. Participants were taught the alarms before the tasks, learning the alarms either by the name of the problem (Hazard) or the position of the alarms in the sequence of events (Sequence).
Participants responded more accurately (F=23.48, P<0.05, eta=0.32) and more quickly (F=20.357, P<0.001, eta=0.51) to auditory icon alarms than to tonal alarms. This higher performance was not at the expense of performance on the vigilance task. The results showed no effect of learning the sounds as Hazards or as a Sequence.
Auditory icons are more effective than tonal alarms. New alarms as indicated by the standard should be adopted by manufacturers wherever possible.
国际医疗器械安全标准IEC 60601-1-8现在推荐使用听觉图标警报。听觉图标警报是对其所发出信号的问题起到隐喻作用的警报。将这些与传统音调警报进行比较。
比较了两组三个听觉警报，一组由听觉图标组成，另一组由旧音调警报的变体组成。志愿者参与者被要求监测三种临床场景，每种场景持续4分钟，在每个场景中会出现不同问题（心脏、氧合和技术问题），这些问题会多次触发警报。参与者在执行一项单独的警觉任务时需要对这些警报做出反应。在任务开始前向参与者教授这些警报，参与者通过问题名称（危险）或警报在事件序列中的位置（顺序）来学习警报。
与音调警报相比，参与者对听觉图标警报的反应更准确（F = 23.48，P < 0.05，η = 0.32）且更快（F = 20.357，P < 0.001，η = 0.51）。这种更高的表现并没有以牺牲警觉任务的表现为代价。结果表明，将声音作为危险或顺序来学习没有影响。
听觉图标比音调警报更有效。制造商应尽可能采用该标准所规定的新警报。
