Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
case for several cartographic symbology, generalisation and transparency layering
(afforded by the MLD) initiatives. The strong parallels between display design
principles and cartographic theory must be exploited in future display design
processes, not just for displays serving emergency time-critical situations but the
ubiquitous displays (i.e. mobile smartphones) that millions of people use on a daily
basis.
Keywords Complexity
Dynamic
Symbology
Generalisation
Proximity
Compatibility Principle (PCP)
Emergency medical dispatch emergency medical
dispatch
1 Introduction
Ambulance dispatch or more formally, emergency medical dispatch, is a complex
task, involving spatial and temporal modelling in cognitive (dispatcher) and
physical (digital) environments for the choice of ambulance to dispatch. In addition,
the urgency of the medical emergency also factors into this. The time taken from the
receipt of an emergency call to the instruction of the chosen ambulance to respond
to that emergency must be minimized. For example, for every minute that treatment
is delayed for a cardiac arrest patient, that patient's chances of making a full
recovery are reduced by 10 % (National Centre for Early Defibrillation
2002
). The
interface design can play an important role in the performance of operators con-
trolling complex systems; in this scenario an effective display could improve the
decision making performance of the dispatchers, therefore reducing the emergency
response time enough to increase the chance of a favourable result in critical cases.
Various researchers have illustrated how interfaces designed to complement human
information processing and decision making have resulted in improved perfor-
mance (e.g. Chapanis and Yoblick
2001
; Howie et al.
2000
; Wong et al.
1998
).
The ambulance dispatch display carries inherently spatial information, the
current location of ambulances (whether implicit or explicit), and their status,
relative to ambulance centres and major settlements. The displays of two New
Zealand ambulance centres, the Northern Region Communication Centre in
Auckland and the Southern Region Communication Centre in Dunedin, have been
subject to cognitive and usability studies from a Human-Computer Interaction
(HCI) perspective. This paper will explore the displays from a predominantly
cartographic perspective. Some parallels will also be drawn between certain
principles of HCI, cognitive science and their geographic or cartographic equiv-
alents (such as spatial autocorrelation and symbology). This multidisciplinary
approach is a continuation of the prevalent geovisualization agenda, which was
established with interfaces, cognition and usability at their core (Cartwright et al.
2001
; Slocum et al.
2001
) and since expanded (e.g. Fuhrmann et al.
2005
).
The next section will outline and investigate the ambulance dispatch process,
followed by a short background on the areas of HCI and cognitive science.
