Challenges for Cross-Jurisdictional Interoperability by Web-Based Situational Awareness System (SAS), Japan
Tetsunori Kawase · Prehospital and Disaster Medicine · 2017
Background: Awareness is an important concept arising in medical care.It has been a widely applied concept in aviation and military circles.Awareness is simply Knowing, being aware.Knowing what is going on around you and applying that knowledge in any situation until it becomes second nature; when you can immediately know the important aspects of the situation, and what will lead to life or limb threatening events.Methods: To highlight the concepts key to Situational awareness; Normal, Change, Distractions, Bias, Target lock.Translating how training in these concepts improves outcomes.Defining the key concepts, understanding them and presenting exercises to assess the Emergency physicians grasp of the concepts.Results: Projecting the gains this training has had in military and aviation, where it has improved the effectiveness of teams and outcomes of events.Leaders have been able to observe events as they unfold, identify the key aspects that would threaten outcome or prove fatal.It enables them to see changes in the progress of events and how numerous factors influence outcome.It shows the disadvantage of bias in any situation, and how focusing only on a small part of the bigger picture can be a problem.Conclusion: The application of Situational awareness in emergency medicine and patient care, would optimize patient care and identify early changes or events that could be life or limb threatening.It consciously puts the emergency physician in a position to identify information and changes, which when acted upon early can improve patient outcome.