As mentioned in our last progress report, we have narrowed our project down to two goals: we will (1) create a comprehensive Systems Requirement Document (SRD), outlining the features of an ideal system for the Vanderbilt NICU, and we will (2) create a model display system that demonstrates what we envision the system looking like and how it will be used.
We have focused the majority of our time in the past two weeks toward creating the skeleton of our display system which we have called NeoTrak. Knowing we have to walk before we can run, we employed Microsoft PowerPoint and clipart to act as a scaffold for an ideal system. While we discussed using a programming language to develop this mock-up, we determined that we could better demonstrate the desired functionality and look of our system with a mock-up in PowerPoint compared to using a coding language. Furthermore, we would like to give this mock-up to Dr. Walsh once completed so that he can add on any changes he deems fit as well as show the PowerPoint to future groups or engineers. Since Dr. Walsh does not have programming experience, a PowerPoint would be much more user-friendly to him. We presented the mock-up to Dr. Walsh on Wednesday to confirm that the system would assist the NICU in the most efficient way possible. Dr. Walsh was very satisfied with our design, and he gave us a few suggestions of items he would like us to include. We are currently adding those improvements to our model.
We are also populating our Systems Requirement Document. We have settled upon a table of contents and have been filling out the sections and making revisions. This SRD will encompass every potential capability of the system. The details in this document are very specific, such as: babies will be indicated on the screen as a black, clickable oval. We will also include functionalities that will not be present in the mock-up. For example, NeoTrak will have the capability to go into “Planning Mode.” In this mode, the charge nurse will be able to take advantage of the spatial aspect of NeoTrak to plan the next shift (ie which babies are on which team, which babies are with which nurse, etc) independent of the current location reported by the tracker. This document will aid future engineers in making NeoTrak for the NICU without having to go through the entire design process. We will also include a section detailing how the current (pre-NeoTrak) processes in the NICU will be improved by the system.