Reduction of Cognitive Bias in Anesthesia Critical Event Decision Making

This is an innovative research project that addresses the cognitive underpinnings of medical decision-making in critical events. Cognitive bias is an inclination in judgment based on incomplete perspective. Such biases may lead to clinical error, and as such represents a critical latent failure and threat to patient safety. As our pilot work has demonstrated, it appears that training may inadvertently induce cognitive bias. Therefore, the development of cognitively informed training is of paramount importance, particularly in the context of simulation, a highly impactful and effective educational platform. We plan to test the hypothesis that decision-making errors can be reduced by implementing cognitive interventions into educational strategy. This research is distinctive in that it challenges the conventional wisdom that decision-making is best safeguarded through knowledge acquisition. This work uses simulation-education to explore new approaches to educational best practice, to reduce latent failure and thereby improve patient safety.