Identifying, Understanding, and Minimizing Unconscious Cognitive Biases in Perioperative Crisis Management: A...

Area of Science:

• Medical decision-making
• Cognitive psychology
• Patient safety

Background:

• Rapid clinical decisions often rely on mental shortcuts, increasing susceptibility to unconscious cognitive biases (UCBs).
• UCBs can negatively impact diagnosis, communication, interventions, and management in clinical settings.
• Perioperative crisis management is particularly vulnerable to the effects of UCBs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the literature on UCBs and their impact on perioperative crisis management.
• To identify clinically relevant UCBs in the perioperative context.
• To discuss strategies for mitigating UCBs in clinical decision-making.

Main Methods:

• A narrative review of literature on UCBs in perioperative crisis management.
• Publications were selected using the Scale for the Assessment of Narrative Review Articles (SANRA).
• Identified 9 clinically relevant UCBs from 19 investigated in medical literature.

Main Results:

• UCBs can lead to diagnostic inaccuracies, communication issues, and treatment delays.
• Formal training on deliberative thinking has shown limited success in reducing UCBs.
• Clinical decision support tools (CDSTs) effectively enhance deliberative decision-making and reduce UCB intrusion.

Conclusions:

• UCBs pose a significant risk to patient safety during perioperative crisis management.
• CDSTs offer a promising approach to improve diagnostic precision and patient outcomes.
• Further innovation is needed to address the adverse impact of UCBs in anesthesiology and perioperative care.