HCC: CAREER: Redefining Skill Requirements and Evaluating Interaction Dynamics in Human-Robot Surgical Teams

Recent advances in surgical robotic devices and systems, which incorporate different levels of automation, have revolutionized the way surgical teams collaborate in the operating room. These systems can assist human operators but can now also independently perform specific surgical tasks. This capability has changed the paradigm of how surgical team members physically and cognitively interact with each other and the technology. Specifically, the requirements for task-relevant cognitive and interpersonal skills on surgical teams have undergone significant changes, where considerations of team interactions are not just the interactions among people but also the interactions with surgical robots as a team member. Thus, the goal of this proposal is to establish a fundamental understanding of how the interactions and relationships among clinicians with future robotic teammates will change, and what are the cognitive and interpersonal skills needed, to facilitate safe and effective robotic surgeries. To meet this goal, this project aims to (1) establish skills metrics for surgical robotic teams through sensor-based measures of behavior and physiology; (2) define and test human-human and human-robot surgical teams’ cognitive and interpersonal skills during different interaction requirements and levels of automation; and (3) develop and evaluate a decision-making aid for improved skills among the robotic surgical team to increase work efficiency. A series of qualitative and quantitative research methods will be completed, with the integrated participation from clinicians and trainees from engineering and medicine. This project considers task, worker, and operational outcomes to improve the safety and effectiveness in surgery, which can be adapted and expanded to other high-stakes, high-stress clinical environments. This project is jointly funded by the Human-Centered Computing (HCC) program in CISE/IIS and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.