A Trial of a Video Game Intervention to Recalibrate Physician Heuristics

University of Pittsburgh

Status: Completed

Conditions: Wounds and Injuries

Treatments: Behavioral: Night Shift; Behavioral: Educational Module

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02857348

PRO16070572

Details and patient eligibility

About

The objective of this study is to compare the efficacy of a video game designed to recalibrate physician heuristics in trauma triage with a standard educational program.

Full description

Treatment at trauma centers improves outcomes for patients with moderate-to-severe injuries. Accordingly, professional organizations, state authorities, and the federal government have endorsed the systematic triage and transfer of these patients to trauma centers either directly from the field or after evaluation at a non-trauma center. Nonetheless, between 30 to 40% of patients with moderate-to-severe injuries still only receive treatment at non-trauma centers, so-called under-triage. Most of this under-triage occurs because of physician decisions (rather than first-responder decisions). Existing efforts to change physician decision making focus primarily on knowledge of clinical practice guidelines and attitudes towards the guidelines. These strategies ignores the growing consensus that decision making reflects both knowledge as well as intuitive judgments (heuristics). Heuristics, mental short cuts based on pattern recognition, drive the majority of decision making. The investigators have developed an adventure video game (Night Shift) to serve as a novel method of recalibrating physician heuristics in trauma triage and will compare its efficacy with a standard educational program.

Enrollment: 368 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Physicians who care for adult patients in the Emergency Department.
• Physicians who work at a non-trauma center.
• Physicians who work at a Level III/IV trauma center.

Exclusion criteria

• Physicians who work at a Level I/II trauma center.
• Physicians who do not practice in the US.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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368 participants in 2 patient groups

Adventure video game

Experimental group

Description:

Physicians in this arm of the trial will be asked to play Night Shift, an adventure video game, for one hour.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Night Shift

Educational Module

Active Comparator group

Description:

Physicians in this arm of the trial will be asked to use myATLS, an app designed by the American College of Surgeons to serve as an adjunct to the ATLS course, and Trauma Life Support MCQ Review, an app designed to help students prepare for the ATLS exam. They will be asked to spend at least one hour on the combined tasks.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Educational Module