Identifying visual search patterns in eye gaze data; gaining insights into physician visual workflow

Importance and Objectives As health information technologies become more prevalent in physician workflow, it is increasingly important to understand how physicians are using and interacting with these systems. This includes understanding how physicians search for information presented through health information technology systems. Eye tracking technologies provide a useful technique to understand how physicians visually search for information. However, analyzing eye tracking data can be challenging and is often done by measuring summative metrics, such as total time looking at a specific area and first-order transitions. Methods In this paper, we propose an algorithmic approach to identify different visual search patterns. We demonstrate this approach by identifying common visual search patterns from physicians using a simulated prototype emergency department patient tracking system. Results and Conclusions We evaluate and compare the visual search pattern results to first-order transition results. We discuss the benefits and limitations of this approach and insights from this initial evaluation.