Assessment of Innovative Emergency Department Information Displays in a Clinical Simulation Center

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Health Informatics
• Cognitive Systems Engineering

Background:

• Emergency department information systems (EDIS) are critical for patient care.
• Current EDIS displays may not fully support healthcare providers' cognitive needs.
• Cognitive systems engineering offers methods to improve health information technology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate new EDIS display concepts developed using cognitive systems engineering.
• To compare the functional utility of new displays against standard displays in simulated emergency department tasks.
• To assess cognitive support, situation awareness, and workload associated with the display conditions.

Main Methods:

• A clinical simulation study involving nurse-physician teams performing simulated emergency department tasks.
• Comparison of newly designed EDIS displays with standard, currently used displays.
• Assessment of cognitive support, situation awareness, and workload using questionnaires.

Main Results:

• Participants rated the new displays significantly higher for cognitive support.
• No significant difference in workload was found between new and standard displays.
• While no main effect on situation awareness was observed, a significant interaction showed improved awareness with new displays over time.

Conclusions:

• Cognitive systems engineering methods can create innovative EDIS displays that enhance cognitive support and situation awareness.
• The developed displays improve emergency medicine task performance without increasing provider workload.
• These findings support the development of health information technology that better addresses the cognitive demands of healthcare professionals.