Paramedic wearing eye-tracking glasses at an accident scene.

Eyes on the Scene: How Eye-Tracking Tech is Changing Paramedic Training

Reese Marlowe in Health & Wellness December 2025 • 4 min read.

"Discover how eye-tracking technology is enhancing situational awareness and reducing medical errors in paramedic education."

In high-stakes environments like emergency medical care, human factors play a critical role. Medical errors, often stemming from lapses in attention and awareness, can have significant consequences. Paramedics, operating in uncontrolled and often chaotic settings, face numerous challenges that can heighten the risk of such errors. These professionals must manage distractions, make quick decisions with limited resources, and perform under pressure, all of which can impact their ability to maintain situational awareness.

Situational awareness (SA), the ability to perceive one's surroundings, understand their meaning, and anticipate future events, is paramount in mitigating these risks. When properly applied, SA can significantly reduce medical errors and improve patient outcomes. However, measuring and cultivating SA in paramedics has traditionally been challenging due to its inherent reliance on cognitive processing.

Enter eye-tracking technology, a promising tool for objectively quantifying and enhancing SA in paramedic training. By monitoring a subject's gaze, eye-tracking provides valuable insights into their attentional focus and cognitive processes. This technology offers the potential to revolutionize how paramedics are trained, ultimately leading to better patient care and reduced medical errors.

Why Situational Awareness Matters in Emergency Medicine

Paramedic wearing eye-tracking glasses at an accident scene.

Situational awareness isn't just about knowing what's around you; it's about understanding the significance of what you see and predicting what might happen next. In emergency medicine, this translates to being able to quickly assess a scene, identify potential hazards, and anticipate a patient's changing condition. A paramedic with strong SA can make informed decisions, prioritize actions, and effectively manage complex situations.

The concept of SA, initially developed for military aviation in the 1980s, has since been widely applied to various dynamic systems, including healthcare. As defined by Mica Endsley, a pioneer in SA research, it comprises three key layers:

Perception: Noticing and understanding elements in the environment.
Comprehension: Interpreting the meaning of those elements in relation to one another.
Projection: Anticipating future events based on current understanding.

Consider a scenario where paramedics arrive at the scene of a car accident. A paramedic with good SA will not only observe the damaged vehicles but also assess the surrounding environment for potential hazards like traffic or downed power lines. They will understand the mechanism of injury and anticipate potential internal injuries based on the visible damage. Finally, they will project the patient's likely trajectory and prepare for potential complications during transport.

The Future of Paramedic Training is in Sight

As eye-tracking technology becomes more affordable and accessible, its potential to transform paramedic education is immense. By providing objective insights into a paramedic's attentional focus and cognitive processes, eye-tracking can help identify areas for improvement and tailor training to individual needs. This technology promises a future where paramedics are better equipped to handle the challenges of emergency medicine, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes and safer communities.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: 10.2147/oaem.s53021, Alternate LINK

Title: Can Eye-Tracking Technology Improve Situational Awareness In Paramedic Clinical Education?

Subject: Emergency Nursing

Journal: Open Access Emergency Medicine

Publisher: Informa UK Limited

Authors: Brett Williams, Simon Cooper, Andrew Quested

Published: 2013-11-01

Everything You Need To Know

How does eye-tracking technology enhance situational awareness in paramedic training?

Eye-tracking technology enhances situational awareness by objectively quantifying a paramedic's attentional focus and cognitive processes. By monitoring a paramedic's gaze, it provides insights into what they are paying attention to, which helps identify areas for improvement and allows for tailoring training to individual needs. This can lead to better preparedness and decision-making in emergency situations.

What is situational awareness, and why is it so important for paramedics?

Situational awareness (SA) is the ability to perceive one's surroundings, understand the meaning of what is perceived, and anticipate future events. For paramedics, SA is critical because it enables them to quickly assess emergency scenes, identify potential hazards, anticipate a patient's changing condition, and make informed decisions under pressure. Strong SA can significantly reduce medical errors and improve patient outcomes.

What are the three layers or components of situational awareness, as defined by Mica Endsley, and how do they apply to a real-world paramedic scenario?

Mica Endsley defines situational awareness as comprising three key layers: Perception (noticing and understanding elements in the environment), Comprehension (interpreting the meaning of those elements in relation to one another), and Projection (anticipating future events based on current understanding). In a car accident scenario, perception involves observing damaged vehicles and environmental hazards. Comprehension involves understanding the mechanism of injury based on the damage. Projection involves anticipating potential internal injuries and preparing for complications during transport.

In what ways can eye-tracking technology reduce medical errors in emergency medical care?

Eye-tracking technology can reduce medical errors by providing objective data on a paramedic's attentional focus, helping to identify lapses in attention or areas where critical information is being missed. By understanding where a paramedic's attention is directed, training programs can be tailored to improve their situational awareness and decision-making skills, ultimately leading to fewer errors and improved patient safety. However, the application of eye-tracking needs to be incorporated carefully, since only monitoring gaze may miss other ways in which paramedics gather information from the scene.

How might the increasing affordability and accessibility of eye-tracking technology impact the future of paramedic training and patient outcomes?

As eye-tracking technology becomes more affordable and accessible, it has the potential to transform paramedic education by providing objective insights into a paramedic's attentional focus and cognitive processes. This can lead to tailored training programs that address individual needs and improve situational awareness. With better-equipped paramedics, the future promises improved patient outcomes, safer communities, and a reduction in medical errors. However, adoption and scalability will be key challenges. Further research will be needed to identify the correct protocols in using the technology for training.