Standardized Anesthesia InductioN Tool (SAINT) – The development and international adoption of an integrated electronic tool for documenting the induction of anesthesia in children

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The induction of anesthesia in children poses a challenge for the anesthesiologist, the parent and child. Anxiety and negative behaviours and strategies that effectively mitigate should be documented accurately and be available for future patient encounters. To address the need for a structured and standardized electronic documentation tool. AIMS: Our aim was to develop a comprehensive electronic tool to capture and report behaviours during induction of anesthesia. METHODS: We performed a literature search on existing validated tools for documenting behaviours during anesthesia induction. We used the nominal group technique to achieve agreement on the components to include. We used Agile software development techniques to design and review the integrated electronic tool. Twelve international hospitals informed the development of the tool. RESULTS: We developed an electronic tool, the Standardized Anesthesia InductioN Tool (SAINT). SAINT incorporates validated scales for documenting key stages of the anesthesia induction journey (separation from caregivers, mask acceptance, induction behaviour, parental presence, the use of adjuncts and their effectiveness). In addition, the standardised data elements used in SAINT allow for local reporting, quality metrics and can assist in data across multi-centre trials. To date the tool has been adopted by 133 institutions across four countries and is freely available. CONCLUSION: We show that collaborative development and rapid adoption of the comprehensive induction tool SAINT has led to its rapid adoption in the routine practice of pediatric anesthesiology across several countries. Further studies on how the SAINT is being used for quality improvement or research are warranted.