Cognitive Skills in Catheter-Based Cardiovascular Interventions

Abstract

Cognitive skills of individual operators determine to a large extent the outcomes of catheter-based interventions. Cognitive learning of interventional skills requires a thorough step-by-step analysis of the entire interventional process including explication of the mostly tacit knowledge-how of experts. Deliberate practice of interventional actions guided by timely feedback of mentors completes the process. The importance of cognitive fallacies such as errors and biases, role of heuristic, strategy design, and tactics are discussed.