ABSTRACT
This chapter describes research to understand how teams, who are engaged in managing some dynamic process, support one another's situation assessment and how they engage in fault diagnosis when there is a problem. Practitioners engaged in managing a dynamic process, such as operating room staff performing a surgery, must maintain a common situation assessment. An observational study of anesthesiologists and operating room staff, focused on the nature of their communications. The major functions and signs that anesthesiologists must monitor are: depth of anesthesia, circulatory function, blood loss, respiratory function, respiratory and anesthetic gases, renal function, neuromuscular function, body temperature, and other system functions depending on the type of surgery or the health of the patient. In the healthcare domain, insertion of computer technology in the form of electronic patient records might have a similar effect in suppressing cues to activities and intent of other team members.
