Background: Doctors must safely manage complex technical tasks. The most expert performers may not most easily explain their actions, except by cued recall and debrief. In Space and Aviation, a method taken from firefighter training ('iViewExpert') has been validated, to extract expertise from pilots and astronauts. The performance of a complex task is recorded on a head-mounted camera, allowing playback to give motion, visual and auditory cues, evoking the recall of experiences with minimum distortion. This aids the skilled debriefer, to reveal elements of experts’ cognitive processes throughout the task. In a feasibility study, we applied this approach to doctors.
Aim: Choosing highly operator-dependent medical procedures, with subtleties of technique, we aimed to determine the feasibility of adapting the iViewExpert technique to surgery, anaesthesia and endoscopy, and to assess whether the final footage with voice-over debrief commentary, may be useful to trainees.
Method: Surgeons, anaesthetists and endoscopists in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness wore a head-mounted camera while performing procedures, eg epidural catheter, cholecystectomy or colonoscopy. Upon playback the operator provided a commentary, facilitated by a psychologist, explaining the important cues and information and the decision-making. Footage with and without commentary was shown online to trainees and colleagues, who answered questionnaires on their understanding of the task, generating quantitative and qualitative data. Operators were also questioned on acceptability of the process. Results are currently being analysed.
Conclusion: This is a feasibility study in process to determine the adaptability of the iViewExpert technique to the medical training arena.
This abstract was presented at the Innovative Solutions in Remote Healthcare - 'Rethinking Remote' conference, 23-24 May 2016, Inverness, Scotland.