Medical Decision Making

Medical professionals are faced with making treatment and intervention on a daily basis. Making the correct medical decision in a fast-paced environment can be stressful for health professionals. It is estimated that over 200 decision is made by the physician during an eight-hour shift. Physicians and other medical professionals go through conscious and subconscious processes that have several competing theoretical models. Decisions making process can be rooted in work experience, personal experience, emotional imprints of past experiences or other multiple reasons. The physician is a critical component of the patient ecosystem, but relatively little is done to understand and improve self-awareness of providers in this area.

In a prior research project, I showed that 67% of potassium replacement is based on reference values. Subsequently, the study showed large discrepancies whether the decision was made for patient vs. provider being a patient in identical scenarios. These observations are a prime target for nudge interventions. Developing an optimal and most effective nudge is the ultimate goal to lower the superfluous electrolyte replacement or reduce waste in the critical care