The Surgeon-Anesthesiologist Relationship: Bridging the "Blood-Brain Barrier" for Patient Safety

About the Event

The Center for Outcomes and Patient Safety in Surgery (COMPASS) at Massachusetts General Hospital is excited to announce the first event in its Patient Safety in Surgery webinar series. On November 19, 2020, please join us for a discussion on the role of the surgeon-anesthesiologist relationship in patient safety.

While teamwork is understood to be critical to perioperative patient safety and quality of care, the surgeon-anesthesiologist dyad is especially critical to ensure both. Yet, there is almost no empirical research about how that relationship impacts safety, nor about the characteristics that define effective relationships and how to foster them. Negative stereotypes are counterproductive yet seem to be prevalent. Jeffrey Cooper, PhD, will address these issues and suggest numerous ways in which positive surgeon-anesthesiologist relationships can be fostered and lead to greater patient safety.

About the Speaker

Jeffrey Cooper, PhD, is professor of anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, the founder of the Center for Medical Simulation—dedicated to the use of simulation in health care in order to improve how medical providers are trained as a way to avoid risk to patients—and the co-founder of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation.

Dr. Cooper is a pioneer in the field of patient safety, having led the first of many studies of critical incidents and human error in anesthesia. Among his many national honors, he is the only non-physician to be awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

Panel of Experts

Moderator: Haytham Kaafarani, MD, MPH
Director of Patient Safety & Quality, Trauma & Emergency Surgery
Associate Professor of Surgery, HMS

Panelist: May Pian-Smith, MD, MS
Anesthesiologist
Associate Professor of Anesthesia, HMS

Panelist: John Schulz, MD, PhD
Burn Surgeon 
Assistant Professor of Surgery, HMS

About COMPASS

COMPASS brings together surgical and procedural quality leaders from across Mass General. Its mission is to join clinical collaboration and data in order to ensure—amongst all surgical and procedural colleagues—the safest, most appropriate and effective and highest quality procedure for every patient, every time.

Each event in the COMPASS Patient Safety in Surgery webinar series will feature a dedicated speaker and a panel of experts, all of whom will discuss a specific topic related to patient safety in health care.