Non-invasive stress estimation in simulative endoscopy setting: literature review

Abstract

One of the most common stressors is so-called “occupational stress.” It is defined as the sum of physical, mental and physiological responses to work in situations where the workload or stress associated with it intensifies for an extended period of time. It is a gradual process in which individual cognitive assessments of occupational stressors generate adverse health events and may lead to burnout. Since it has become a major problem in the medical field, studying, measuring and limiting it have been set as goals for the future. We present a literature review on the topic of measuring stress using non-invasive means, such as cardiac indices measured through different devices, electrodermal activity, skin temperature, and salivary biomarkers. A virtual reality simulation could be used in conducting such experiments in order to provide a standardized environment with set variables for researchers to discern the most precise indices to be used in a real-life setting.