opticARe - Augmented Reality Mobile Patient Monitoring in Intensive Care Units

German Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are in crisis, struggling with an increasing shortage of skilled workers, ultimately putting patients’ safety at risk. To counteract this process, researchers are increasingly concerned with finding digital solutions which aim to support healthcare professionals by enhancing the efficiency of reoccurring critical caring tasks and thus, improve working conditions. In this regard, this paper evaluates the application of Augmented Reality (AR) for patient monitoring for critical care nursing. Grounded on an observational study, semi-structured interviews, as well as a quantitative analysis, mobile patient monitoring scenarios, present particularly during patient transport, were identified as an innovative context of use of AR in the field. Additionally, user requirements such as high wearability, hands-free operability, and clear data representation could be derived from the obtained study results. For validation of these and identification of further requirements, three prototypes differing in their data illustration format were subsequently developed and quantitatively, as well as qualitatively evaluated by conducting an online survey. Thereby, it became evident that future implementations of a corresponding system for patient monitoring ought to integrate a context-dependent data presentation in particular, as this combines high navigability and availability of required data. Identifying patient monitoring during patient transport as a potential context of use, as well as distinguishing a context-dependent design approach as favorable constitute two key contributions of this work and provide a foundation on which future implementations of AR systems in the nursing domain and other related contexts can be established.