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Clinicians are not always at their patients’ bedsides and may therefore need ways of remotely monitoring the well-being of multiple patients under their care. We outline the main findings of a research program investigating whether the intermittent presentation of short phrases of time-compressed speech (spearcons) is an effective way of giving mobile clinicians information about their patients without annoying either clinician or patient. We provide a high-level overview of several studies investigating participants’ ability to understand spearcons, both individually and in sequences representing multiple patients. We then report in more detail a recent small study testing whether participants’ ability to understand spearcons is compromised by different kinds of ongoing tasks. Finally, we outline further issues that should be addressed and further research studies performed before spearcons could be considered a viable tool for patient monitoring.

Head Worn Displays (HWDs) are increasingly used to support mobile workers across diverse domains. However, little is known about how HWDs affect teamwork in safety-critical contexts. We conducted a narrative review examining the effects of HWDs on teamwork performance and team processes of situation awareness, communication, and coordination for emergency response. HWDs appear to improve the quality of team performance but increase time to perform under some conditions; effects on team processes are also mixed. It is difficult to compare results across studies due to the diverse technologies, contexts, and measures used. Successful design, evaluation, and deployment of HWDs in emergency response contexts may require a stronger foundation of theory-driven and process-based research. Perspectives such as joint cognitive systems, distributed cognition, and common ground may help researchers uncover mechanisms by which HWDs shape teamwork processes and how team processes affect team performance over time.

Objectives: To (1) develop a simulation software environment to conduct prehospital research during the COVID-19 pandemic on paramedics’ teamwork and use of mobile computing devices, and (2) establish its feasibility for use as a research and training tool. Background: Simulation-based research and training for prehospital environments has typically used live simulation, with highly realistic equipment and technology-enhanced manikins. However, such simulations are expensive, difficult to replicate, and require facilitators and participants to be at the same location. Although virtual simulation tools exist for prehospital care, it is unclear how best to use them for research and training. Methods: We present SPECTRa—Simulated Prehospital Emergency Care for Team Research—an online simulated prehospital environment that lets participants care concurrently for single or multiple patients remotely. Patient scenarios are designed using Laerdal’s SimDesigner. SPECTRa records data about scenario states and participants’ virtual interaction with the simulated patients. SPECTRa’s supporting environment records participants’ verbal communication and their visual and physical interactions with their interface and devices using Zoom conferencing and audiovisual recording. We discuss a pilot research implementation to assess SPECTRa’s feasibility. Results: SPECTRa allows researchers to systematically test small-team interaction in single- or multipatient care scenarios and assess the impact of mobile devices on participants’ assessment and care of patients. SPECTRa also supports pedagogical features that could allow prehospital educators to provide individual trainees or teams with online simulation training and evaluation. Conclusions: SPECTRa, an online tool for simulating prehospital patient care, shows potential for remote healthcare research and training.