Word: checklists
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...wield an arsenal of 6,000 drugs and 4,000 procedures. But surgeon and author Atul Gawande says the very vastness of our knowledge gets in the way: doctors make errors because they simply can't remember it all. The solution, he outlines in his new book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, isn't fancier technology or more training. It's as simple as an old-fashioned checklist, like those used by pilots, restaurateurs and construction engineers. When his research team introduced one in eight hospitals in 2008, major surgery complications dropped 36% and deaths plunged...
...write that we're often reluctant to believe that something as banal-sounding as a checklist can get results and look for heroes - as we did in the "Miracle on the Hudson," for instance. We didn't want to believe that Sully [Captain Chesley Sullenberger] had computer systems helping guide the plane down or that his co-pilot was playing a crucial role. When I do an operation, it's half a dozen people. When it goes beautifully, it's like a symphony, with everybody playing their part. And then I go talk to the family and they say, 'Thank...
...checklists can help fix that but sometimes run against the medical culture. We evolved from a world where the operating theater - we called it a theater - was a stage for the surgeon. Now it is a stage for an entire team of people to work in sync. The most important component [of the checklist] has turned out to be making sure that everybody in the room has been introduced by name and that people just take a minute to discuss the case in advance. I introduced the checklist in my operating room, and I've not gotten through a week...
That kind of meticulousness probably helped expedite the NIH's approval of the new lines, a process that involves applying a checklist of criteria spelled out by the agency and providing documentation that the cells meet all of the requirements exactly. This review, says Collins, boils down to NIH staff agreeing that all the necessary criteria for inclusion have been met. Approval of some lines may be less straightforward if certain requirements have not been met to the letter. For instance, since stem-cell lines are drawn from unused embryos donated to research by couples undergoing the IVF procedure, researchers...
...students at Willamette University in Oregon. Many colleges have had to invent a "director of parent programs" to run regional groups so moms and dads can meet fellow college parents or attend special classes where they can learn all the school cheers. The Ithaca College website offers a checklist of advice: "Visit (but not too often)"; "Communicate (but not too often)"; "Don't worry (too much)"; "Expect change"; "Trust them...