The Evaluation of a Pulmonary Display to Detect Adverse Respiratory Events Using High Resolution Human Simulator
- Affiliations of the authors: Departments of Medical Informatics (SBW), Anesthesiology (SBW, KJ, RA, NS, DW), Psychology (FD), University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
- Correspondence and reprints: S. Blake Wachter, MD, PhD, University of Utah, Department of Anesthesiology, 3C444 SOM, 30 North 1900 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84132-2304. e-mail: <blake{at}relia.net>
- Received 8 April 2006
- Accepted 14 August 2006
Abstract
Objective Authors developed a picture-graphics display for pulmonary function to present typical respiratory data used in perioperative and intensive care environments. The display utilizes color, shape and emergent alerting to highlight abnormal pulmonary physiology. The display serves as an adjunct to traditional operating room displays and monitors.
Design To evaluate the prototype, nineteen clinician volunteers each managed four adverse respiratory events and one normal event using a high-resolution patient simulator which included the new displays (intervention subjects) and traditional displays (control subjects). Between-group comparisons included (i) time to diagnosis and treatment for each adverse respiratory event; (ii) the number of unnecessary treatments during the normal scenario; and (iii) self-reported workload estimates while managing study events.
Measurements Two expert anesthesiologists reviewed video-taped transcriptions of the volunteers to determine time to treat and time to diagnosis. Time values were then compared between groups using a Mann-Whitney-U Test. Estimated workload for both groups was assessed using the NASA-TLX and compared between groups using an ANOVA. P-values < 0.05 were considered significant.
Results Clinician volunteers detected and treated obstructed endotracheal tubes and intrinsic PEEP problems faster with graphical rather than conventional displays (p < 0.05). During the normal scenario simulation, 3 clinicians using the graphical display, and 5 clinicians using the conventional display gave unnecessary treatments. Clinician-volunteers reported significantly lower subjective workloads using the graphical display for the obstructed endotracheal tube scenario (p < 0.001) and the intrinsic PEEP scenario (p < 0.03).
Conclusion Authors conclude that the graphical pulmonary display may serve as a useful adjunct to traditional displays in identifying adverse respiratory events.
Footnotes
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This research is funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health and the NASA Space Grant program (NIH: 5 RO1 HL 064590-03, NASA: NGT540101).
