Complexity and Errors in Critical Care

Abstract

This volume is unique in its focus on cognitive informatics (CI), a flourishing discipline that cuts across several academic and professional sectors. The chapters in this volume focus on motivating examples drawn from the application of methods and theories from CI to challenges pertaining to the practice of critical-care medicine. Informatics is a discipline concerned with the basic and applied science of information, the practices involved in information processing, and the engineering of information systems. Cognitive Informatics is the multidisciplinary study of cognition, information and computational sciences that investigates all facets of human computing, including design and computer-mediated intelligent action [1]. The basic scientific discipline of CI is strongly grounded in the methods and theories of cognitive science. As an applied discipline, it also draws on the methods and theories from human factors and human-computer interaction. The healthcare domain has provided significant challenges and a fertile test bed for theories from these disciplines. CI provides a framework for the analysis and modeling of complex human performance in technology-mediated settings and contributes to the design and development of better information systems.