SynthesisAnaesthesia2023
Cognitive aids in the management of clinical emergencies: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Anaesthesia, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- RECOVER Guidelines: Newborn Resuscitation in Dogs and Cats. Clinical Guidelines.Journal of veterinary emergency and critical care (San Antonio, Tex. : 2001) · 2025Guideline
- Learning to manage tracheostomy-related emergencies: a pilot study comparing three teaching strategies for junior doctors in intensive care.BMC medical education · 2026Trial
- Machine learning algorithms enhance the accuracy of radiographic diagnosis of dental caries: a comparative study.Dento maxillo facial radiology · 2025Trial
- Digital Health-Enabled Prehospital Notification for Acute Stroke Using the Brain Saver Mobile App in Emergency Medical Transport in South Korea: Pilot Quasi-Experimental Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2026Article
- Article
- Co-designing emergency communication for patients with mechanical circulatory support devices.JHLT open · 2026Article
- Evaluating a Shared Decision Support Tool for Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Arrest: Mixed Methods Usability Study.JMIR human factors · 2026Article
- Evaluation of a Cognitive Aid Application to Improve Non-Technical Skills in Simulated Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR): A Randomised Controlled Trial.Clinics and practice · 2026Article
- When seconds matter - introducing a surgical salvage strategy by emergency robotic surgery: a review.Patient safety in surgery · 2026Review
- Human Factors in Airway Management: Designing Systems for Safer, Team-Based Care.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
- Decision support strategies for bedside nursing clinical reasoning: A scoping review.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2025Review
- Smart technologies and digital innovations for improving perioperative patient safety: a review.Patient safety in surgery · 2025Review
- Videolaryngoscopy for all: A global proposal for safer airway management.Indian journal of anaesthesia · 2025Article
- Getting ON-TRAC, a team-centred design study of a reflexivity aid to support resuscitation teams' information sharing.Advances in simulation (London, England) · 2025Article
- TraumaFlow-development of a workflow-based clinical decision support system for the management of severe trauma cases.International journal of computer assisted radiology and surgery · 2024Article
- Emergency tracheostomy management in critical care and the operating room.Annals of translational medicine · 2024Article
- Cognitive aids used in simulated resuscitation: A systematic review.Resuscitation plus · 2024Review
- Electronic field protocols for prehospital care quality improvement in Lithuania: a randomized simulation-based study.Scandinavian journal of trauma, resuscitation and emergency medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Clinical emergencies can be defined as unpredictable events that necessitate immediate intervention. Safety critical industries have acknowledged the difficulties of responding to such crises. Strategies to improve human performance and mitigate its limitations include the provision and use of cognitive aids, a family of tools that includes algorithms, checklists and decision aids. This systematic review evaluates the usefulness of cognitive aids in clinical emergencies. Following a systematic search of the electronic databases, we included 13 randomised controlled trials, reported in 16 publications. Each compared cognitive aids with usual care in the context of an anaesthetic, medical, surgical or trauma emergency involving adults. Most trials used only clinicians in the development and testing of the cognitive aids, and only some trials provided familiarisation with the cognitive aids before they were deployed. The primary outcome was the completeness of care delivered to the patient. Cognitive aids were associated with a reduction in the incidence of missed care steps from 43.3% to 11% (RR (95%CI) 0.29 (0.15-0.16); p < 0.001), and the quality of evidence was rated as moderate. The use of cognitive aids was related to decreases in the incidence of errors, increases in the rate of correctly performed steps and improvement in the clinical teamwork skills scores, non-technical skills scores, subjective conflict resolution scores and the global assessment of team performance. Cognitive aids had an inconsistent influence on the time to first intervention and time to complete care of the patient's condition. It is possible that this was a reflection of how common or rare the crisis in question was as well as the experience and expertise of the clinicians and team. Sufficient thought should be applied to the development of the content and design of cognitive aids, with consideration of the pre-existing guideline ecosystem. Cognitive aids should be tested before their deployment with adequate clinician and team training.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.