Exploring the Design of Computerized Support for Clinical Decisions about Stopping Life-Saving Interventions

The decision to continue or stop life-saving interventions on a patient can be emotionally and ethically challenging for clinical teams. We explore the design of a decision-support system for cases with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), a frequently performed life-saving intervention during trauma resuscitation. To better understand the current practices around making decisions about CPR and the types of systems that could support decision-making, we are conducting interviews with clinicians and reviewing videos of past resuscitations. In this work-in-progress, we discuss our preliminary findings, which include the types of computerized support envisioned by clinicians. We also discuss the design considerations that will inform our next steps as we continue this work.