Auditory Alarms in Critical Care Settings:
Research Support
Auditory Alarms in Critical Care Settings
Research
Support
Support for this research has spanned a number of years and has been supported through a number of sources:
University of Maryland
School of Medicine Anesthesiology Research Laboratory
With a history of
supporting human-factors research in medicine, this lab provides support for
alarm research as an integral part of its mission. This laboratory serves
as the operational center for the alarm studies, providing access to the Level
One Trauma Center, the LOTAS anesthesia simulator, as well a home base for Dr.
Yan Xiao and Dr. Colin Mackenzie.
University of
Illinois Institute of Aviation, Aviation Research Laboratory
The
Aviation Research Laboratory is the second of the primary research centers
involved in carrying out this research. This laboratory supported research in
auditory alarms both to support the dissertation of one of its researchers (F.
Jacob Seagull), and because of the topic's relevance in aviation flight-deck and
air-traffic control. The laboratory's focus is on advanced displays for aviation,
and thus it provides valuable interdisciplinary expertise for analysis of
current medical monitoring-displays. It provides a home base as well as
administrative support for Dr. Christopher Wickens, and previously provided a
base of operations for Jacob Seagull.
Through this lab, we have access to the eye-tracking equipment.
National Patient Safety Foundation at the
American Medical Association
The National Patient Safety Foundation
(NPSF) funds research that is in accord with its mission "to improve measurably
patient safety in the delivery of health care by [working] to identify and
create a core body of knowledge [and] identify pathways to apply the
knowledge." The NPSF awarded the Anesthesiology Research Laboratory and
the Aviation Research Laboratory a grant to examine the issues of auditory
alarms in the critical care context. The NPSF grant covered research from
April of 1999-March of 2001. This phase of research examined auditory
alarms and monitoring-behavior in the surgical operating room as well as in the
USUHS patient simulator.
Read final report to NPSF: PDF
Uniformed
Services University of the Health Sciences Patient Simulation Laboratory (USUHS)
The Patient Simulation Laboratory (PSL) is a collaborative project between the
National Naval Medical Center’s Department of Anesthesiology and the Uniformed
Services University of the Health Sciences’ Departments of Anesthesiology,
Physiology, and Anatomy. The PSL provided support in the form of access to
the patient simulator, and collaboration in the alarm research.
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science
and Technology
The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is an inter- and
multidisciplinary research institute devoted to basic research in the physical
sciences and engineering, and in the life and behavioral sciences. The
Beckman Institute supports human factors research through its research group on
Human Perception and Performance. In conjunction with the Aviation
Research Laboratory, a grant from the Beckman Institute helped to provide the
eye-tracking equipment used in this series of experiments. It also provides
data-analysis facilities including digital video editing equipment for analysis
of the eye-tracking data.
University of Illinois Campus
Research Board
Provided through the Department of Psychology of the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a grant from the research board
covered preliminary work on this topic from September 1998 - April 1999.
This grant was provided as support for the PhD research of F. Jacob Seagull
under the direction of Dr. Christopher D. Wickens.