Information acquisition from audio-video-data sources: An experimental study on remote diagnosis

Objective: To determine what information sources are used during a remote d iagnosis task. Materials and Methods: Experienced trauma care providers viewed segments of videotaped initial trauma patient resuscitation and airway management. Exp eriment 1 collected responses from anesthesiologists to probing questions d uring and after the presentation of recorded video materials. Experiment 2 collected the responses from three types of care providers (anesthesiologis ts, nurses, and surgeons). Written and verbal responses were scored accordi ng to detection of critical events in video materials and categorized accor ding to their content. Experiment 3 collected visual scanning data using an eyetracker during the viewing of recorded video materials from the three t ypes of care providers. Eye-gaze data were analyzed in terms of focus on va rious parts of the videotaped materials. Results: Care providers were found to be unable to detect several critical events. The three groups of subjects studied (anesthesiologists, nurses, an d surgeons) focused on different aspects of videotaped materials. Conclusion: When the remote events and activities are multidisciplinary and rapidly changing, experts linked with audio-video-data connections may enc ounter difficulties in comprehending remote activities, and their informati on usage may be biased. Special training is needed for the remote decision- maker to appreciate tasks outside his or her speciality and beyond the boun daries of traditional divisions of labor.