Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are known for supporting healthcare services in dealing with adverse situations. However, little is known on the contribution of ICTs in a prolonged crisis involving a new disease, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we carry out an exploratory investigation of which ICTs contribute the most to the emergency care of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 according to healthcare technology experts and how physicians perceive these contributions. Initially, we applied an online survey to 109 healthcare technology experts. Then, we conducted 16 in-depth follow-up interviews with emergency medicine professionals from 10 countries to identify the ICTs contributing the most to treat COVID-19 patients. Results from the survey indicated four ICTs as the most useful to support the treatment of COVID-19 patients; they are remote consultations, digital platforms for data sharing, digital non-invasive care, and interconnected medical decision support. The interviews provided insight into the applicability of those ICTs for the studied context. The four main ICTs were also found to be logically compatible with the complexity of the pandemic, reducing undesirable complexity attributes (e.g. physical proximity between caregivers and infected patients) and amplifying desirable ones (e.g. interactions that support collaborative work and knowledge sharing).

Sterilization plants process all reusable materials used in hospitals during different stages of healthcare provision. Most items sterilized come from the surgical theater in the form of individual instruments, linen and surgical trays. Reducing the number of instruments in trays impacts on the performance of the sterilization process. Here, we propose a three-phase method, based on lean healthcare principles, cluster analysis and kaizen groups of experts to rationalize surgical trays, reducing sterilization processing costs. We innovate by proposing a strategy to approach tray rationalization prioritizing surgical specialties that are both complex and frequent, and by using group technology to cluster surgical trays expediting expert analyses carried out by kaizen groups. Our propositions were tested in a high complexity, tertiary care hospital, covering 12 surgical specialties, reducing the number of instruments by average 9.75%, and the time-to-assemble trays by average 9.68%, obtaining annual savings of US$285.756,00 in sterilization processing costs.

In the cognitive sciences, intuition is described as a way of processing information based on automatic, affective and personal standards, but it is not the opposite of rationality. Designers generate solutions to daily issues, which forces them to make decisions that cannot be always understood rationally. Designing for experiences is a delicate practice in a rational perspective, since the designer's interpretation on how to trigger particular experiences can be highly influenced by intuition. Designers have a choice to use intuition in the design process without control, or to understand the process and use it consciously. In this context, self-knowing is a key factor in intentional intuiting. This paper aims at discussing how intuition works when professionals design for experiences and, by providing the basis to understand the process, offers inputs on how to deal with it, avoiding biases in the design practice and helping to develop self-knowledge. Relevance to ergonomics theory In recent decades, ergonomics has been concerned with the understanding of designing to evoke or prevent particular experiences among users. The designer's challenge is to interpret users’ bodily experiences, commonly without awareness of the situation or context in which they are perceived. The design process is often affected by intuition and its role needs to be understood by professionals in order to be used accurately. Theoretical inputs from cognitive psychology are discussed in relation to the design practice, to help improve ergonomics theory in the context of intuition in designing for experiences. The paper indicates that a designer can make a conscious decision to use intuition when designing for experiences. The use of intentional intuiting in this context does not exclude rational thinking, but complements it and helps qualifying design decision-making, since it reduces the use of biased subjectiveness in the interpretation on how to evoke or prevent particular experiences. The training of intentional intuiting is possible but challenging since it takes time, and the keys to successful use of intuition lay in self-knowing and appropriate state of mind of a designer.