Display of information in the operating room

The ongoing development of new sensors and parameters for intraoperative monitoring has outpaced the development of display design, leading to a gap between the load of information and the quality of its delivery. This is not a circumstantial problem, as a large portion of critical incidents is attributable to inadequate situation awareness and the failure to recognize readily monitored data. This review also addresses improvements of current threshold alarms.

Research has focused on advanced integrated displays, drawing on the findings of human factor science and on the exploitation of alternative sensory pathways. Integrated displays, as well as auditory, vibrotactile and head-mounted displays have been shown to promote situation awareness and reduce cognitive workload. Intelligent alarm design can successfully reduce the number of false alarms.

Improvement of the display of information in the operating room is warranted, and recent developments are promising. However, their introduction into mass market is not yet on the horizon, although the shortcomings of the traditional single-sensor-single-indicator principle are known for a long time. If manufacturers are reluctant to implement new techniques into their devices, they should at least facilitate access to monitoring raw data in order to allow independent development of displays.