Medical Equipment Usability in India - a question of Life or Death

By Ajay Khape


The deaths of two newborns in incubators at hospitals in Delhi and Ahmedabad last week has raised questions over the safety of patients seeking medication through various medical devices. A recent study of usability issues of medical devices in intensive care units (ICU) in some hospitals in and around the city has revealed serious deficiencies of life support devices and their usage.

"The issue of usability of medical equipment in hospitals across the country is very serious. The initial study has revealed that there is a need to impart training of using medical devices to the assistive staff along with design of devices," said Ganesh Bhutkar, assistant professor at Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT) who is pursuing a PhD in medical usability.

Bhutkar is being guided by Dr Dinesh Katre, expert in human computer interaction (HCI) and head of the National Multimedia Resource Centre of C-DAC, and Dr N R Rajhans, industrial engineer and professor with VIT.

Drawing from the survey of seven different ICUs — four from the city, one each in Baramati, Shirwal and Bhopal — Bhutkar said, “The assistive staff has been found to have insufficient knowledge of using the devices. The observations are they learn by trial and error. Many functions of the devices remain hidden and unused due to lack of training.”

“The serious issue exists not only in the country but in other parts of the world as well,” he said, claiming that he had studied around 50 research papers while conducting his research. “The problems might be different, but they do exist elsewhere and they seem to be more severe in hospitals in India.”

Associated Link: Use of medical devices by hospital staff under scanner

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