Evaluating a Graphical Cardiovascular Display for Anesthesia

A multi-disciplinary team developed a graphical/object-based cardiovascular display to support anesthesiologist's decision-making in the operating room. The process of designing the display incorporated central findings from the areas of naturalistic decision-making and medical cognition and used rapid iterative prototyping. To evaluate their performance when using the cardiovascular display, 20 anesthesiologists participated in a study in a high fidelity simulator (METI). Half the subjects used the cardiovascular display, the other half received the same information presented in a numeric format. The anesthesiologists treated two critical events in two simulated patients. In one case the patient suffered from anaphylactic shock, in the other case, severe blood loss and myocardial infarction occurred. Measurements were taken for detection, diagnosis, and treatment time. The cardiovascular display improved performance across these different indicators when anesthesiologists were dealing with a cardiovascular event.