• A Perel, H Berkenstadt, A Ziv, R Katzenelson, and A Aitkenhead.
• Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Tel Aviv University, Sheba Medical Centre, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
• Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2004 Nov 1;21(11):898-901.

Background And ObjectiveIn this preliminary study we wanted to explore the attitudes of anaesthesiologists to a point-of-care information system in the operating room. The study was conducted as a preliminary step in the process of developing such a system by the European Society of Anaesthesiologists (ESA).MethodsA questionnaire was distributed to all 2240 attendees of the ESA's annual meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, which took place in April 2001.ResultsOf the 329 responders (response rate of 14.6%), 79% were qualified specialists with more than 10 yr of experience (68%), mostly from Western Europe. Most responders admitted to regularly experiencing lack of medical knowledge relating to real-time patient care at least once a month (74%) or at least once a week (46%), and 39% admitted to having made errors during anaesthesia due to lack of medical information that can be otherwise found in a handbook. The choice ofa less optimal but more familiar approach to patient management due to lack of knowledge was reported by 37%. Eighty-eight percent of responders believe that having a point-of-care information system for the anaesthesiologists in the operating room is either important or very important.ConclusionsThis preliminary survey demonstrates that lack of knowledge of anaesthesiologists may be a significant source of medical errors in the operating room, and suggests that a point-of-care information system for the anaesthesiologist may be of value.

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