Designing Man-Machine Interactions for Mobile Clinical Systems: MET Triage Support on Palm Handheld

∗ Corresponding author. MET Research Team School of Management University of Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 Canada tel.+1 613 562-5800 x.4955 [email protected] Abstract The Mobile Emergency Triage (MET) system is a clinical triage support system that aids emergency personnel in making triage decisions as to whether a child presenting in the Emergency Department with a specific pain complaint should be discharged to the family physician, needs to be admitted for further investigation/observation, or requires urgent specialist consult. The system’s mobile module is designed to work on a Palm handheld. This paper presents our experiences and discusses some of our solutions with regards to designing man-machine interactions for mobile clinical support systems. Specific solutions adopted in the MET design were developed in consultation with potential users and tested at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.