Emergency Aloft: First Aid in the Skies

Abstract

“Is there a doctor on board?” The dreaded overhead announcement alerting cabin crew and passengers to a serious medical event 35000 feet in the sky. Heeding the call in this unforgiving environment, responders must make do with the limited onboard equipment.

This thesis adopts a human-centred design and action research approach, exploring the physical factors impacting the usability and navigation of Air New Zealand’s onboard physician’s kit. This research explores cabin crews’ ability to respond and the environmental constraints of providing medical assistance in an aircraft cabin.

Through in-depth user interviews and a contextual exploration, this research builds an understanding of the procedures and response to in-flight medical emergencies and the connection between the cabin crew and the physician’s kit. This data was used to identify areas of friction within the current physician’s kit design, leading to areas of design opportunity.

The findings of this research contribute to the idea that applying a human-centred design approach to healthcare equipment is a beneficial approach. The desired outcome of this project is an improved physician’s kit design fit for Air New Zealand aircraft.