Examples of Cognitive Aids

Sometimes called "checklists", we think of cognitive aids in medicine as structured pieces of information designed to enhance cognition and adherence to medical best practices. The format of the information in a cognitive aid can be as simple as a piece of paper with a written reminder, to something as complicated an interactive and dynamically-changing computer-driven interface.

The goal of our Cognitive Aids in Medicine research group is to explore how to best design and measure the impact of the use of cognitive aids in medicine. We are focusing our initial efforts on high-stakes medical interventions that we believe would most likely benefit from aiding cognition: critical events in medicine.

Example of Static Cognitive Aids in Medicine

These cognitive aids were published in Chu and Fuller, 2011.

Examples of Verbal Cognitive Aids in Medicine

Although we didn't create this example, it does illustrate how the automatic external defibrillator device provides cognitive aid to the rescuer by prompting the user with verbal cues to help them properly connect the device electrodes and operate the defibrillator.

Example of Static Paper-based Cognitive Aids in Critical Events in Anesthesia

Here is an example of how static paper-based cognitive aids can be used during a medical crisis to assist a medical team in patient care.

Development of Interactive Cognitive Aids for Critical Events

Here's an example from Kyle Barrett and Katherine Chen, two interns who worked with our group this summer on the design process for our interactive cognitive aid project. Katherine and Kyle won the UXWeek scholarship!

From Cognitive Aid to Resource Management

Jesse Ciremele from our HCI group collaboration discusses the design process that led us from cognitive aids to resource management at Medicine 2.0 '11 at Stanford University.
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