Visual display format affects the ability of anesthesiologists to detect acute physiologic changes. A laboratory study employing a clinical display simulator.

BACKGROUND: Anesthesiologists use data presented on visual displays to monitor patients' physiologic status. Although studies in nonmedical fields have suggested differential effects on performance among display formats, few studies have examined the effect of display format on anesthesiologist monitoring performance.
METHODS: A computer-based clinical display simulator was developed to evaluate the efficacy of three currently used display formats (numeric, histogram, or polygon displays) in a partial-task laboratory simulation. The subjects' task consisted solely of detecting any changes in the values of the physiologic variables depicted on a simulated clinical display. Response latency and accuracy were used as measures of performance.
RESULTS: Thirteen anesthesia residents and five nonmedical volunteers, were enrolled as subjects. Use of either the histogram or polygon displays significantly improved response latencies and allowed greater accuracy compared with the numeric display in the anesthesia residents. Neither response latency nor accuracy improved with additional exposure to these displays. In contrast, display format did not significantly affect response latency or accuracy in the nonmedical volunteers.
CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest that graphic displays may enhance the detection of acute changes in patient physiologic status during anesthesia administration. This research also demonstrates the importance of assessing performance on clinical devices by studying actual users rather than random subjects. Further research is required to elucidate the display elements and characteristics that best support different aspects of the anesthesiologist's monitoring tasks.