Development and Usability Testing of a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Physician-Parent Decision Support Tool (PPADS)

Abstract

This thesis presents the development and evaluation of a computerized physician-parent decision support tool for a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), known as Physician and Parent Decision Support (PPADS). The NICU is a specialized hospital unit that treats very-ill neonates. Many difficult care decisions are made daily for this vulnerable population. The PPADS tool aims to augment current NICU decision-making by helping parents and physicians make more informed decisions, improving physician-parent communication, increasing parent decision-making satisfaction, decreasing conflict, and increasing decision efficiency. The development of the PPADS tool followed a five-step methodology: assessing the clinical environment, establishing the design criteria, developing the system design, implementing the system, and performing usability testing. Usability testing of the PPADS tool was performed on neonatologists and on parents of neonates who have graduated (survived) from a tertiary level NICU. The usability testing demonstrated the usefulness and ease of use of the tool.