New research suggests musical alternatives to murderous hospital beeping

imeng.vip:03月-10日 A representational image of a surgeon looking at monitoring equipment.

Intensive Care Units (ICUs) are far from calm environments. Tensions often run high in the air, with occasional muffled gasps— of sometimes joy and otherwise sorrow— and the regular beeping of various apparatuses puncturing tension at regular intervals.

 

A newly published study has revealed insights into hospital beeping, pulling the covers off their adverse effects. According to the authors, hospital workers are exposed to a staggering 1,000 alarms per shift, leading to a phenomenon called ‘alarm fatigue.’ 

This phenomenon, the authors argue, could be contributing to hundreds of lives lost. The research team found that only 15% of all alarms in critical care unit environments were clinically relevant. 

Most of the alarms were observed to be threshold alarms, with 45% related to arterial blood pressure. The rest often overwhelms medical personnel, leaving them struggling to discern crucial signals from the surrounding chaos. According to New Atlas, the US FDA reported 566 alarm-related deaths between 2005 and 2010.

A harmonious solution
Two of the study’s authors, Joseph Schlesinger of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the US, and Michael Schutz from McMaster University, Canada, set out to explore unconventional approaches to alarm design. 

According to New Atlas, the importance of clinical alarms led to manufacturers adhering to global standards set to ensure consistency. However, this consistency also meant that many alarms sounded similar to the human ear.

The research team identified alternative sounds to be more effective than conventional monotonous sounds. These alternative sounds include ‘percussive’ timbres characterized by short bursts of high-frequency energy. While conventional sounds often get lost amid the ambient noise in hospitals, the alternatives were anything but.

In a controlled experiment, the researchers presented 42 participants with alarms involving both traditional and musical timbres. Astonishingly, the participants— aged 17 to 23— perceived the musical timbre (based on a xylophone) to be less annoying in 88% of instances. 

Remarkably, the participants also showed no difficulty in recognizing them compared to standard “boring” hospital beeps. This study opens new avenues promising improved alarm designs without compromising the “alarming” aspect of alarms.

Future implications
Schlesinger and Schutz believe that their musically informed approach to alarm design is a pivotal step toward enhancing patient monitoring, care, and safety. They envision a future where hospitals resonate with carefully crafted sounds drawing inspiration from the centuries-old innovation in musical instruments that optimize both attention and comfort for healthcare professionals.

Speaking to New Atlas, the researchers said that their investigation offered “a helpful step to improving alarm design while avoiding existing issues of excessive sounds among medical devices.” The team highlighted the need for future research that would uncover the impact of timbres on other perceptual issues, including the detectability of these alarms.

The research team’s findings were published in the journal Perioperative Care and Operating Room Management.

Study Abstract
To validate cardiovascular alarms in critically ill patients in an experimental setting by generating a database of physiologic data and clinical alarm annotations, and report the current rate of alarms and their clinical validity. Currently, monitoring of physiologic parameters in critically ill patients is performed by alarm systems with high sensitivity, but low specificity. As a consequence, a multitude of alarms with potentially negative impact on the quality of care is generated.