Morbidity, mortality, cost, and survival estimates of gastrointestinal anastomotic leaks.

Background: Anastomotic leak, a potentially deadly postoperative occurrence, particularly interests surgeons performing gastrointestinal procedures. We investigated incidence, cost, and impact on survival of anastomotic leak in gastrointestinal surgical procedures at an academic center.

Study Design: We conducted a chart review of American College of Surgeons NSQIP operative procedures with gastrointestinal anastomosis from January 1, 2003 through April 30, 2006.

Visualizing surgical quality data with treemaps.

Background: Treemaps are space-constrained visualizations for displaying hierarchical data structures using nested rectangles. The visualization allows large amounts of data to be examined in one display. The objective of this research was to examine the effects of using treemap visualizations to help surgeons assess surgical quality data from the American College of Surgeons created the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program database in a quick and timely manner.

DiAs user interface: a patient-centric interface for mobile artificial pancreas systems.

Background: Recent in-hospital studies of artificial pancreas (AP) systems have shown promising results in improving glycemic control in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. The next logical step in AP development is to conduct transitional outpatient clinical trials with a mobile system that is controlled by the patient. In this article, we present the user interface (UI) of the Diabetes Assistant (DiAs), an experimental smartphone-based mobile AP system, and describe the reactions of a round of focus groups to the UI.

Designing for distractions: a human factors approach to decreasing interruptions at a centralised medication station.

Objective: To decrease interruptions around a centrally-located, centralised, open paediatric medication station.

Methods: Several established human factors methodologies were used to study paediatric medication administration, including cases with 'walk through' and verbal protocols; semi-structured interviews, including critical incident analysis; hierarchical task analysis; and observation.

Results: Inexpensive barriers were constructed that protected the tasks likely to lead to errors if interrupted.

User evaluation of an innovative digital reading room.

Reading room design can have a major impact on radiologists' health, productivity, and accuracy in reading. Several factors must be taken into account in order to optimize the work environment for radiologists. Further, with the advancement in imaging technology, clinicians now have the ability to view and see digital exams without having to interact with radiologists.