Services & Activities

Over the last several years, the center has undertaken a variety of research projects focused on education, patient monitoring, and medical device development. Extramural support from the NIH, NASA, US Army, Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation and Department of Anesthesiology supported many of these projects. Connect with us to explore collaboration opportunities and learn how we can support your research initiatives
Bioengineering
Laboratory
Usability Studies
Digital Health &
Decision Support
Medical Device
Summative Studies
B-TAC Program
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Medical Device Lab

Founded in 1976 by Dwayne Westenskow, the Anesthesiology Bioengineering Laboratory at the University of Utah is a research facility dedicated to the development and testing of medical devices used in healthcare. The lab has contributed significantly to the advancement of medical technology in this field. Its primary goal is to create innovative devices and digital health technologies that improve patient safety during acute and critical care

The lab fosters collaboration between bioengineers, designers, medical providers, and academic healthcare researchers to ensure that healthcare technologies meet the needs of providers and patients. It conducts research, designs prototypes, and rigorously tests the usability of devices and technologies to ensure safety and efficacy

Equipped with facilities for simulation, animal testing, and clinical studies, the lab enables comprehensive evaluation of new technologies. It has also served as a training ground for numerous graduate students in biomedical engineering and medical informatics. Research conducted in the lab has led to the development of several commercialized technologies that are currently used in healthcare

Primary Investigators

Joseph Orr
PhD, MS, MEM
Laura Brewer
PhD, MS
Kai Kück
PhD, ME
Ken Johnson
MD, MS
Noah Syroid
MS

Publications

A Primer on Simulation-Based Training in Anesthesia Residency
International Anesthesiology Clinics. Vol 63, Issue 3 (Summer 2024), Pages 55-63
Author(s)
Candace C‍
Clarifying the grey space of sugammadex induced bradycardia
Current Opinion in Anaesthesiology. Vol 36, Issue 4 (Aug 2023), Pages 422-427
Author(s)
Ken Johnson, Beca Chacin
A pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic real-time display may change anesthesiologists’ behavior
Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing. Vol 35, Issue 3 (May 2021), Pages 547-556
Author(s)
Shinju Obara, Noah Syroid, Takahiro Ogura, et al
Faster clinical response to the onset of adverse events: a wearable metacognitive attention aid for nurse triage of clinical alarms
PLoS One. Vol 13, Issue 5 (May 2018), e0197157
Author(s)
Daniel McFarlane, Alexa Doig, James Agutter, Laura Brewer, Nouah Syroid, Ranjeev Mittu
Accuracy of CO2 monitoring via nasal cannulas and oral bite blocks during sedation for esophagogastroduodenoscopy
Journal of Clinical Monitoring and Computing. Vol 30, Issue 2 (April 2016), Pages 169-173
Author(s)
Kuo-Chen Chang, Joe Orr, Wei-Chih Hsu, et al
Using simulation to study speaking up and team performance
Anesthesia & Analgesia. Vol 116, Issue 5 (April 2013), Pages 1183-1184
Author(s)
Christine Park, Jeanette Bauchat, Rachel Kacmar, et al
Graphical user interface simplifies infusion pump programming and enhances the ability to detect pump-related faults
Journal. Vol 115, Issue 5 (November 2012), Pages 1087-1097
Author(s)
Noah Syroid, David Liu, Robert Albert, et al
Part Task and variable priority training in first-year anesthesia resident education: a combined didactic and simulation-based approach to improve management of adverse airway and respiratory events
Journal. Vol 108, Issue 5 (May 2008), Pages 831-840
Author(s)
Ken Johnson, Noah Syroid, Drews FA, et al
Development and evaluation of a just-in-time support system
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Vol 49, Issue 3 (June 2007), Pages 543-5551
Author(s)
Frank Drews, Paul Picciano, James Agutter, Noah Syroid, Dwayne Westenskow, David Strayer
The evaluation of a pulmonary display to detect adverse respiratory events using high resolution human simulator
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Vol 13, Issue 6 (November 2006), Pages 635-642
Author(s)
Blake Wachter, Ken Johnson, Robert Albert, Noah Syroid, Frank Drews, Dwayne Westenskow
Drug delivery as control task: improving performance in a common anesthetic task
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Vol 48, Issue 1 (Spring 2006), Pages 85-94
Author(s)
Frank Drews, Noah Syroid, James Agutter, David Strayer, Dwayne Westenskow
The employment of an iterative design process to develop a pulmonary graphical display
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. Vol 10, Issue 4 (July 2003), Pages 363-372
Author(s)
Blake Wachter, James Agutter, Noah Syroid, Frank Drews, Matthew Weinger, Dwayne Westenskow
Psychophysical Scaling of a Cardiovascular Information Display. In: IEEE Symposium on Information Visualization
14th IEEE Visualization 2003 Conference. October 2003. Seattle, WA, USA
Author(s)
Robert Albert, Noah Syroid, Yinqi Zhang, James Agutter
Evaluation of graphic cardiovascular display in a high-fidelity simulator
Anesthesia & Analgesia. Vol 97, Issue 5 (November 2003), Pages 1403-1413
Author(s)
James Agutter, Frank Drews, Noah Syroid, Dwayne Westneskow, Rob Albert, David Strayer, Julio Bermudex, Matthew Weinger
Development and evaluation of a graphical anesthesia drug display
Anesthesiology. Vol 96, Issue 3 (March 2022), Pages 565-575
Author(s)
Noah Syroid, James Agutter, Frank Drews, Dwayne Westenskow, Robert Albert, Julio Bermudez, David Strayer, Hauke Prenzel, Robert Loeb, Matthew Weinger
Clinical evaluation of the Life Support for Trauma and Transport (LSTAT) platform
Journal. Vol XX, Issue X (Month Year), Pages XX-XX
Author(s)
Ken Johnson, Frederick Pearce, Dwayne Westenskow, Lazarre Ogden, Steven Farnsworth, Shane Peterson, Julia White, Travis Shade
Teaching sedation and analgesia with simulation
Journal. Vol XX, Issue X (Month Year), Pages XX-XX
Author(s)
Farnsworth ST, Egan TD, Johnson SE, Westenskow D
Intelligent Alarms Reduce Anesthesiologist’s Response Time to Critical Faults
Journal. Vol XX, Issue X (Month Year), Pages XX-XX
Author(s)
Westenskow D, Orr JA, Simon FH, Bender HJ, Frankenberger H.