Eye Tracking as a Debriefing Mechanism in the Simulated Setting Improves Patient Safety Practices

Abstract

Eye tracking offers a unique opportunity to provide students with objective data about their behaviors during simulation experiences, particularly related to safety practices that involve the comparison of patient stated data to an artifact such as an ID band. Despite the limitations of current eye tracking technology, there is significant potential for the use of this technology as a method for the study and evaluation of patient safety practices.

Eye-Tracking in the Study of Visual Expertise: Methodology and Approaches in Medicine

“…While some studies have demonstrated an acquisition of a pattern of "expert" gaze with focused training on gaze patterns (Jardoska et al, 2012; E.A. Henneman et al, 2014), it would be highly informative to examine the effects of such training over a prolonged period of time to ascertain whether this represents a permanent shift due to the use of eyetracking as an educational tool. Furthermore, the patterns of vision seen in the search-related expertise employed for medical screening may differ significantly from the examination of images from which a pathologic diagnosis is expected.…”

“…In the field of medical learning, several studies involving all levels of medical professionals have used individual eye-tracking data for both training, and debriefing after simulations (Jarodska et al, 2012;Henneman et al, 2014). As a debriefing strategy for medical simulations, eye-tracking can offer useful | F L R 49 information about errors that cannot be readily observed or verbalized.…”

“…Furthermore, the feedback of scanpath and fixation data to individual medical trainees may prove useful as not only a research, but an educational tool. In two separate studies, comparisons of standard verbal debriefing of medical trainees following a simulated patient encounter, debriefing involving videos of their scanpaths, and debriefing involving both verbal and scanpath information, revealed that addition of eye-tracking data most significantly improves subsequent performance (Jarodska et al, 2012;Henneman et al, 2014). It is likely that the increasing ease of use of eye-tracking tools will allow investigators to recruit a greater number of "expert" participants, and thereby provide accurate and generalizable data to the medical community.…”

Validating Eye Tracking as an Objective Assessment Tool in Simulation

“…These data provide a unique perspective for the wearer as recall of visual attention is unpredictable. Playback of an expert video or the student's own video may be used to assist novices to a higher level of achievement such as in a study by Henneman et al (2014). Further study with a detailed debriefing of experts or a simulation using a speak-aloud technique in which participants talk audibly what they are thinking could add more information as to why the expert looked where they looked or to train novices for subsequent simulations.…”

Study on Applications of Eye Tracking in Different Fields

“…Other thought-provoking focuses are the attentional effort [11] by Longman on switching tasks, perception and observation of landscapes [12] by Dupont and patient safety practice [13] by Henneman.…”