VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTATION FOR HUMAN-FACTORS STUDIES IN SURGERY AND ANESTHESIA

Human factors issues for anesthesiologists, surgeons, and other operat ing room [OR] personnel require serious attention. We have established a collaborative program to use a virtual instrumentation laboratory t o study human factors problems in the OR. A 17-workstation virtual ins trumentation laboratory using LabVIEW software on Power Macintoshes pe rmits rapid prototyping of medical monitor displays and rapid developm ent of systems for physiologic data collection. The virtual instrument ation lab has been used for four master's thesis projects and a biomed ical engineering course, entitled Human Factors in the Design of Medic al and Assistive Technology. Course projects have included (1) the des ign and evaluation of novel anesthesia monitor displays and (2) the me asurement of surface electromyographic signals and heart rate variabil ity to study the physical and mental workloads of performing Iaparosco pic surgery. The virtual instrumentation lab lets biomedical engineeri ng students investigate relatively complex human factors issues in ane sthesiology and surgery in a short time span. (C) 1998 National Instru ments. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.