Nowadays, foot switches are used in almost every operating theatre to support the interaction with medical devices. Foot switches are especially used to release risk-sensitive functions of e.g. the drilling device, the high-frequency device or the X-ray C-arm. In general, the use of foot switches facilitates the work, since they enable the surgeon to use both hands exclusively for the manipulation within the operation procedures. Due to the increasing number of (complex) devices controlled by foot switches, the surgeons face a variety of challenges regarding usability and safety of these human-machine-interfaces.

In the future, the approach of integrated medical devices in the OR on the basis of the open communication standard IEEE 11073 gives the opportunity to provide a central surgical cockpit with a universal foot switch for the surgeon, enabling the interaction with various devices different manufacturers. In the framework of the ongoing OR.NET initiative founded on the basis of the OR.NET research project (2012–2016) a novel concept for a universal foot switch (within the framework of a surgical workstation) has been developed in order to optimise the intraoperative workflow for the OR-personnel.

Here, we developed three wireless functional models of a universal foot switch together with a standardised modular interface for visual feedback via a central surgical cockpit display. Within the development of our latest foot switch, the requirements have been inter alia to provide adequate functionalities to cover the needs for the interventions in the medical disciplines orthopaedic surgery, neurosurgery and ENT.

The evaluation has been conducted within an interaction-centered usability analysis with surgeons from orthopaedics, neurosurgery and ENT. By using the Thinking Aloud technique in a Wizard-of-Oz experiment the usability criteria effectiveness, learnability and user satisfaction have been analysed.

Regarding learnability 83.25% of the subjects stated that the usage of the universal foot switch is easy to learn. An average of 77,2% of users rated the usability of the universal foot switch between good and excellent on the SUS scale. The intuitiveness of the graphical user interface has been approved with 91.75% and the controllability with 83.25%. Finally, 86% of the subjects stated a high user satisfaction.