British journal of anaesthesia
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Cognitive errors are thought-process errors, or thinking mistakes, which lead to incorrect diagnoses, treatments, or both. This psychology of decision-making has received little formal attention in anaesthesiology literature, although it is widely appreciated in other safety cultures, such as aviation, and other medical specialities. We sought to identify which types of cognitive errors are most important in anaesthesiology. ⋯ Cognitive errors are thought to contribute significantly to medical mishaps. We identified cognitive errors specific to anaesthesiology practice. Understanding the key types of cognitive errors specific to anaesthesiology is the first step towards training in metacognition and de-biasing strategies, which may improve patient safety.
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Incorrect placement of epidural catheters causes medical complications. We used linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to develop an intelligent recognition system (i-RS) in order to guide epidural placement and reduce physician error. ⋯ The sensitivity and specificity of LDA for identifying the correct anatomical structure was similar to a physician who is an expert in epidural placement. Overall performance of an i-RS could be improved by expanding the database for decision-making and adding a category of uncertainty. This would reduce complications caused by incorrect epidural placement.