Exploring the use of tablet applications for emergency resuscitation practice

As technology has advanced in recent years, tablet devices have started to make their way into all walks of life. Yet, many medical documentation processes still see the use of paper. Though the paper based documentation method has been shown to be effective for some purposes, the introduction of tablet devices has the potential to make the documentation processes a lot smoother. In this thesis, tablet based documentation systems are reviewed, and based on this, a new custom application is developed that medical staff can use with ease. This new application, developed for an iPad is one where users can fully customize their own forms for different uses in the intensive care unit for resuscitation scenarios. The thesis discusses the architecture behind this application along with designing different elements of the system. Through this thesis project, the application was evaluated to see if such a complex documentation process can be easily used and created on a tablet device. The medical staff surveyed, responded positively to the use of the application and agreed that the electronic documentation usage and creation is a powerful tool that could help improve resuscitation practice by making it more efficient.