Healthcare & teamwork
Understanding Cross-Team Communication Through Shared Cognition in EMS to ED Handoffs
A dissertation abstract on designing multimodal, workflow-aware AR-HMD interfaces that reduce information loss during EMS-to-ED emergency handoffs.
Jonathan Isaac Segal1
1Cornell University
The research at a glance
How can critical patient context travel with the patient from an EMS team to the emergency department?
Approach
This dissertation research combines field studies, participatory design, and planned simulation-based evaluation to explore visual, auditory, spatial, and speech-based support through AR-HMDs.
Takeaway
The research direction centers on capturing, structuring, and presenting information at the right moment so that incoming and outgoing teams can build shared understanding.
A doctoral consortium dissertation abstract describing a research agenda and preliminary insights.
Abstract
Emergency care depends on effective cross-team communication (CTC), yet handoffs between Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and the Emergency Department (ED) remain a significant source of preventable error and adverse medical outcomes. Although protocols and documentation exist, handoffs rely heavily on verbal exchange and fragmented records that fail to support shared cognition. This dissertation focuses on designing intelligent ubiquitous interfaces that improve CTC in safety-critical environments. Using EMS to ED handoffs as a representative case, I investigate how multimodal interfaces can capture, structure, and present critical information at appropriate times. Augmented reality head-mounted displays serve as a platform to evaluate visual, auditory, spatial, and speech-based interactions. My work combines field studies, participatory design, and simulation-based evaluation to provide empirical evidence for improving CTC. Preliminary findings suggest that workflow-aware, modality-sensitive interfaces can improve information alignment and situational awareness, with the potential to reduce preventable errors and improve patient safety in time-critical care.
Contributions
- Information must be glanceable, role-relevant, and timed to the moment of need during high-acuity care.
- Coordination support matters most when teams assemble dynamically and communication is fragmented.
- Trust in automation depends on transparency, confirmation, and clear boundaries, not full autonomy.
Citation
@inproceedings{segal2026crossteam,
title={Understanding Cross-Team Communication Through Shared Cognition in EMS to ED Handoffs},
author={Segal, Jonathan Isaac},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 2026 ACM Interactive Health Conference},
series={IH '26},
articleno={96},
pages={1--5},
year={2026},
publisher={ACM},
doi={10.1145/3786579.3801797}
}