Pittsburgh Surgical Outcomes Research Center
Transforming the conduct of clinical research

Transactive memory in trauma resuscitation teams Phase 1 & 2

Improving the effectiveness of trauma resuscitation in the emergency department is a major priority for the United Sates health care system. The underlying hypothesis of this research is that a major determinant of resuscitation effectiveness is the presence of a well-developed transactive memory system (TMS), a collective systems for encoding, storing and retrieving information. The overall goal of this study is to determine the link between TMS and trauma team performance. First, we will review videos of trauma resuscitations in the UPMC Presbyterian Hospital Emergency Department and code those videos for the presence of TMS behaviors. Second, we will determine the relationships between (a) team structure and TMS behaviors; and (b) TMS behaviors and team performance. Third, we will obtain team level information (i.e., attending physician, nurse, etc.) for all Level I and Level II traumas performed within the UPMC health system from 2015 through 2019 via the EHR trauma bay record. With this data, we will utilize network analyses to explore what factors influence TMS scores. Additionally, we will explore what aspects of networks influence trauma outcomes (e.g., status at discharge, death). Overall this research will provide new insight into trauma team performance and will identify novel targets for improving trauma resuscitation effectiveness, leading to lower mortality and lower health care costs for patients with traumatic injury.

Research Faculty

Research Type