Abstract
A new system, Bravo/TeleTrend, was developed to allow critical care personnel easy access to patient information over the Internet. Data that would normally be restricted to the hospital could be accessed through a Web Browser. A pilot usability study was conducted to investigate the use of secondary tasks to hide long loading times. Since large amounts of data take a long time to load over the Internet, this shortcoming can be disguised. This gives users the impression that the system is responding faster than in actuality.