Research and Evaluation

The Center for Cognitive Studies in Medicine and Public Health, led by Vimla Patel, PhD, is a multidisciplinary research center devoted to evidence-based studies regarding how health professionals make decisions in complex clinical environments; the nature of medical errors; and the role of technology in mitigating errors. In 2014, the Center focused its research on improving patient safety and care quality in complex critical care environments—ICU and ER. These initiatives were driven by the goals of developing comprehensive, empirically driven interventions to mitigate clinical errors, streamline patient care transitions, and develop better protocols for patient care that integrated health information technology (HIT) seamlessly into the clinical work environment. These efforts were partly driven by a project funded by the James S. McDonnell Foundation (JSMF) on studying Cognitive Complexity and Error in Critical Care Practice. Research results from the Center’s work in 2014 appeared in numerous journals, conference publications, and in a forthcoming new book edited by Dr. Patel, Cognitive Informatics in Health and Biomedicine: Human Computer Interaction (Springer). In addition, the following projects focused on the development and evaluation of tools for clinical settings.