Medical technology innovation has improved patient monitoring in perioperative and intensive care medicine and continuous improvement in the technology is now a central focus in this field. Because data density increases with the number of parameters captured by patient-monitoring devices, its interpretation has become more challenging. Therefore, it is necessary to support clinicians in managing information overload while improving their awareness and understanding about the patient’s health status. Patient monitoring has almost exclusively operated on the single-sensor–single-indicator principle—a technology-centered way of presenting data in which specific parameters are measured and displayed individually as separate numbers and waves. An alternative is user-centered medical visualization technology, which integrates multiple pieces of information (e.g., vital signs), derived from multiple sensors into a single indicator—an avatar-based visualization—that is a meaningful representation of the real-world situation. Data are presented as changing shapes, colors, and animation frequencies, which can be perceived, integrated, and interpreted much more efficiently than other formats (e.g., numbers). The beneficial effects of these technologies have been confirmed in computer-based simulation studies; visualization technologies improved clinicians’ situation awareness by helping them effectively perceive and verbalize the underlying medical issue, while improving diagnostic confidence and reducing workload. This review presents an overview of the scientific results and the evidence for the validity of these technologies.

Viscoelastic point-of-care haemostatic resuscitation methods, such as ROTEM or TEG, are crucial in deciding on time-efficient personalised coagulation interventions. International transfusion guidelines emphasise increased patient safety and reduced treatment costs. We analysed care providers’ perceptions of ROTEM to identify perceived strengths and areas for improvement. We conducted a single-centre, mixed qualitative–quantitative study consisting of interviews followed by an online survey. Using a template approach, we first identified themes in the responses given by care providers about ROTEM. Later, the participants rated six statements based on the identified themes on five-point Likert scales in an online questionnaire. Seventy-seven participants were interviewed, and 52 completed the online survey. By analysing user perceptions, we identified ten themes. The most common positive theme was “high accuracy”. The most common negative theme was “need for training”. In the online survey, 94% of participants agreed that monitoring the real-time ROTEM temograms helps to initiate targeted treatment more quickly and 81% agreed that recurrent ROTEM training would be beneficial. Anaesthesia care providers found ROTEM to be accurate and quickly available to support decision-making in dynamic and complex haemostatic situations. However, clinicians identified that interpreting ROTEM is a complex and cognitively demanding task that requires significant training needs.

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BACKGROUND Viscoelastic hemostatic assays, such as ROTEM or TEG, enable prompt diagnosis and accelerate targeted treatment. However, the complex interpretation of the results remains challenging. Visual Clot - a situation awareness-based visualization technology - was developed to assist clinicians in interpreting viscoelastic tests. OBJECTIVE Following a previous high-fidelity simulation study, we analyzed users' perceptions of the technology to identify its strengths and limitations from clinicians' perspectives. METHODS This is a mixed qualitative-quantitative study consisting of interviews and an online survey. After solving coagulation scenarios using Visual Clot in high-fidelity simulations, we interviewed anesthesia personnel about the perceived advantages and disadvantages of the new tool. We used a template approach to identify dominant themes in interview responses. Out of these themes, we then defined five main statements, which were rated on Likert scales in the online questionnaire. RESULTS We interviewed 77 participants and 23 completed the online survey. We identified nine frequently mentioned topics by analyzing interview responses. The most common themes were ``positive design features``, ``intuitive and easy to learn`` and ``lack of a quantitative component ``. In the online survey, 70% of participants agreed that Visual Clot is easy to learn and that a combination of Visual Clot and ROTEM would help manage complex hemostatic situations. CONCLUSIONS A group of anesthesia care providers found Visual Clot well-designed, intuitive and easy to learn. Participants highlighted its usefulness in emergencies, especially for clinicians inexperienced in coagulation management. However, the lack of quantitative information is an area for improvement.