Subjective and objective quantification of physician’s workload and performance during radiation therapy planning tasks

Quantifying the impact of cross coverage on physician’s workload and performance in radiation oncology

“…Thus, the time-weighted average metrics for the eye data might not capture the overall physiological workload for a complete case and (or) tasks (ie, the high workload portions are markedly diluted by the lowerworkload portions). The findings in the current study are in line with the findings of Mazur et al, 15 which suggested that the time-weighted average of the physiologic eye data might not be ideal metrics to quantify workload during radiation therapy planning tasks. Also, the pupil diameter is susceptible to change with varying luminance and the participant's gaze angle in the visual field.…”

“…Despite the Physician's workload in cross coverage e183 increased workload, the mean NASA-TLX scores remained in the safe range (ie, b 55 as recommended by Mazur et al 15 ). However, on an individual basis, 4 of 8 participants had NASA-TLX scores ≥55 during cross coverage suggesting a potentially unsafe circumstance, with an increased risk of human error.…”

“…In this regard, some of the differences between the cross-coverage scenario and the regular-coverage scenario may have been related to a "learning curve" of becoming accustomed to the laboratory environment (since the methods used always had the cross-coverage scenario precede the regular-coverage scenario), and thus perhaps overstate the impact of cross coverage. Nevertheless, several of the participants had participated in prior studies in our department 14,15 and were broadly familiar with the techniques being used. Further, the NASA-TLX might not be ideal for subjective assessments of physicians' workload; however, it is the most well accepted instrument for performing subjective workload assessments.…”

“…These efforts are commonly done and successfully implemented in a variety of industries (eg, transportation, nuclear power, and medicine). [13][14][15][16] Some limited work has been done along these lines in healthcare. In radiation therapy, Mazur et al 14 used the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) instrument to quantify workload levels among radiation treatment professionals and found potentially "unsafe workload levels" (eg, NASA-TLX scores N 55).…”

The effect of a standardised source of divided attention in airway management

“…20,24 Under dual-task conditions, such a score was reached on a regular basis particularly for conventional and videoassisted tracheal intubation. Further analyses of the NASA-TLX data revealed the specific influences of our distraction model on certain subdimensions of workload.…”