Design of a handheld computer application for clinical critical incident reporting

This paper describes the design of a handheld, mobile computing application for the reporting of patient safety incidents by clinical staff. Research suggests that there is under-reporting of patient related critical incidents within the NHS. The current process of reporting is primarily handled using paper based systems. This introduces a number of barriers to reporting by staff and presents risks in terms of the integrity of the information. This research has involved determining the user requirements of a handheld computer-based reporting system aimed at improving the quality and quantity of reports made. The user centred design process involved in producing a prototype solution is described