Information Management in the Perioperative Environment

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DESCRIPTION (PROVIDED BY THE APPLICANT): New technologies are expanding the amount of information available to health care practitioners. In the perioperative environment, this includes an increase in patient monitoring data. The dynamic nature of the perioperative environment makes it especially susceptible to problems of information overload. There is a need for a holistic and human centered approach in the analysis and redesign of perioperative information displays. The main hypothesis for this research is that the application of human factors design principles and the use of a human centered design process will lead to the design of perioperative information displays that improve patient care compared to current systems. This research plan involves four main components: 1. Identification of human factors design principles based on contemporary theories of human decisionmaking, situation awareness, and teamwork that are relevant to the dynamic, mobile, risky, team-based, and information-rich perioperative environment; 2. The application of cognitive task analyses and knowledge elicitation methods to identify the important information requirements for the perioperative environment; 3. The design of perioperative information displays using a human-centered approach that includes a process of iterative user evaluation and redesign; and 4. Comparison of the new designs with conventional perioperative information displays under anesthesia crisis management scenarios using a human patient simulator. In addition to the potential to improve patient safety through better information management in the perioperative environment, the results of this effort will have implications for: (1) training in the perioperative environment; and (2) system design in other dynamic, safety-critical health care environments.