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Messages in the Mind: Designing Effective Messaging Systems for Healthcare

Swoosh. Ping. Tweet. Do you ever wonder what neurons are firing in your brain when you hear these sounds coming from your smartphone? The average person picks up their phone more than 1,500 times per week, according to a study about 2,000 smartphone owners. Some of this activity may be from boredom, but some of it is because of the incessant tide of inbound notifications. Do you feel excitement when hearing a new alert sound, or perhaps anxiety, curiosity, anger, or exhaustion? What is causing you to react to each notification sound the way you do? Depending on the sound and appearance of the notification, the meaning we apply to the associated application and our current environment, we react differently. From sensory input to bottom-up and top-down processing, to electrochemical signals, the way the mind deals with information is important to consider when designing effective messaging technologies for healthcare environments. A physician or nurse may receive over a hundred messages in a day, making it difficult to process the vast amounts of information. In fact, a 2013 Journal of the American Medical Association study found that ‘‘physicians reported receiving 63 alerts per day on average [in addition to nonwork-related messages], and 70% said this is more than they can manage.’’ Care providers are often inundated with messages of varying criticality while working directly with patients, making it difficult to prioritize information and manage work flow effectively. This can adversely affect patient care. An internal study of physician alarm fatigue at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha found that ‘‘Iphysicians ignored alerts more than 90% of the time, a rate that varied little based on severity,’’ because of the volume and nature of the alerts that they were receiving. These statistics illustrate the very real nature of this problem.