Equipment manufacturers must differentiate auditory alarms for equipment used concurrently

System Problems & Equipment Manufacturers

R readers of this column know that I don’t hesitate to criticize equipment manufacturers for their technically parochial and/or deficient engineering which ultimately drives system installers, maintenance technicians and users crazy. Although I'm an instructor at a number of seminars and workshops each year, the by Bill Whitlock recent Syn-Aud-Con JENSEN TRANSFORMERS Grounding and Shielding Wor...

Developing an equipment SCCR standard for manufacturers of industrial equipment

Testing New Alarms for Medical Electrical Equipment

This paper reports the first of several tests of new auditory alarms originally proposed by Block et al. [1] and formalized in IEC 60601-1-8 for use in medical electrical equipment. We test whether participants who are supplied with the IEC-recommended mnemonics while learning label-alarm associations can more accurately identify the alarms after short periods of learning. Results for 18 partic...

Are melodic medical equipment alarms easily learned?

BACKGROUND We tested melodic auditory alarms recommended in the IEC 60601-1-8 standard for medical electrical equipment for ease of learning and discrimination, and for effectiveness during a timeshared task. METHODS Twenty-two critical care nurses learned the IEC 60601-1-8 melodic alarms over two training sessions more than a week apart, with or without mnemonics suggested in the standard. S...

Towards a comprehensive service business management environment for equipment manufacturers

Transformation of equipment manufacturers to become providers of industrial services is a trend that involves deep transformation of companies. Equipment manufactures can potentially provide services significantly more efficiently and effectively by utilizing information about their installed base. We aim to recognise decision support functionality and required information contents for a system...