Subjects were interviewed pre and post operatively, and approximately one week later, when selected events were reviewed. Most clinical activity followed structured plans. When physiological systems were not directly measurable, control strategies either chose an indirect but observable parameter as a substitute, or attempted to estimate the unobserved parameter from multiple pieces of evidence. Cognitive loading may swamp attentional resource and result in perceptual errors while monitoring, and may be caused by plan reformulation or multi-parameter estimation. Data overloading was not observed in the study.
Information gathering is structured around anesthetic tasks rather than physiological systems.
Clinical decision making is normally described in terms of the diagnostic process, but in real-time domains like anesthesia, decisions seem to be control oriented and plan based.