The Evaluation of a Graphical Pulmonary Display in Anesthesiology

We have developed graphic technology to display data from the respiratory monitors used during anesthesia. The display uses color, texture, shape and emergent features to highlight abnormal pulmonary physiology. Nineteen anesthesiologists participated in a simulator based evaluation (METI, Sarasota, FL.). Half the subjects used the metaphor display and half did not. Each subject was trained for 10 minutes on the pulmonary display. The time difference during the obstructed endotracheal tube did prove significant (p=0.02) in favor of the pulmonary display condition. During the intrinsic PEEP scenario, the subjects treated the patient earlier (positive trend p=0.l) with the pulmonary display compared to the control condition. The group that used the pulmonary display treated a restricted upper airway more quickly (2.3 min vs. 3.9 min). Subjects liked the simplicity of the design. In future studies, we hope to further reduce the time for the detection and treatment of all scenarios by improving the design's intuitiveness, integration, and emergent features.