Predicting Cognitive Performance of Deploying Health Teams

As the military undergoes significant changes the need to find new methods to aid in the selection, training, and deployment of medically cognitive ready teams becomes more emphasized than in the past. Our research activities employ state of the art techniques in Cognitive Engineering, Decision Making, Team Performance and Instructional Design to develop comprehensive medical cognitive readiness measures that assess status and provide diagnostic information to the combat surgical team and its members. Our prototype, Medical Cognitive Readiness Statusing Technique (M-CREST), uses unobtrusive, non-invasive, and validated measures of cognitive readiness, and is aligned with the Department of Defense (DoD) Cognitive Readiness and Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative. Phase II objectives are to (1) produce a functional M-CREST prototype, (2) demonstrate and evaluate all M-CREST functional capabilities for military applications, (3) produce a detailed commercialization plan and technical report. M-CREST requirements and specifications are based on a needs driven model that follows a systems engineering approach. The M-CREST system provides a method for decision aiding so that better medical cognitive readiness decisions can be made for team and individual selection, team and individual assessment, team diagnostic capabilities, and prescriptive training based on specific team diagnosis.