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Excellent article in Academic Medicine on applying athletic principles to Medical Rounds to improve both teaching and patient care!

Great journal. Be sure to add the RSS feed for this to your Feedy page. The article discusses the "re-branding" of Lean Thinking semantics into Athletic Team and Coaching semantics . The terms and concepts utilized were well received by the clinicians and students. A similar approach may be very helpful with other insightful ideas from the business leadership literature. The very interesting book Switch describes how to create significant and sustained positive organizational change through Shaping the Path, Motivating the Elephant, and Directing the Rider. All of my colleagues would appropriately think I was nuts if I utilized this terminology at our next faculty meeting. However, all of these same ideas were demonstrated to us by our favorite athletic coaches.  And this really work - The study reported a 30% reduction in 30 day readmission rate and a 18% reduction in length of stay, and of course the usual education research outcomes that everyone liked the team ap...

Team Training in Healthcare: An AHRQ sponsored Narrative Synthesis of the Literature

Excellent Open Access article on Team Training in Healthcare in the BMJ Quality and Safety Journal We have all been in a poorly run code where team work break down resulting in total chaos. Teamwork matters. Team training matters. Given the chaos and typically undifferentiated presentations of critical illness, no where is teamwork more important than in the Emergency Department. This review of the literature reviews several not so surprising facts regarding teamwork: - When surgical teams exhibit less teamwork, the OR for complications and death increases to 4.8. - Communication issues contribute to 24% of malpractice claims - Teamwork and communication issues are cited as the root cause in a staggering 52-70% of adverse events. The review continues on in great detail reviewing the literature. A must read for anyone who trains teams of healthcare providers. A key message that we all can bring back to our next shift is the importance of the three C's: Cooperation. Commun...

Inspiring TED Talk on the Process and Emotion of Research by Uri Alon

Wonderful and inspirational Ted talk on How to be a research, and perhaps life mentor ! The speaker reviews the Process of research, moving the emphasis off the results. After a few successful, and a few unsuccessful projects, I really appreciated his description of the "Cloud" that all researcher must go thru in pursuit of expected, or often unexpected truth. We have all been there; the data just does not tell the expected story, so we blames ourselves, instead of asking what the data really does tell us. Many mentors struggle with how to deliver positive yet important feedback to their mentees. I have met only a few mentors who have done this well. Personally, I will begin to use the feedback tool "Yes And...".

Ten Life Lessons from the Navy Seals

Ten Life Lessons from Navy Seal Training  http://www.lifebuzz.com/10-lessons-from-navy-seal/#!YQXX2 Amazing commencement address at the UT by Naval Admiral William McRaven highlighting the tenacity and innovative spirit of the Navy Seals. I even appreciated Rule #1: If you want to change the world, then start by making the bed. Tradition and innovation do not always go together today. But beginning the day with small goal setting and attention to detail always starts the day off right. Other traditions remain worthwhile today as well. While I am not a fan of mandatory shirt and ties for MD's in the ED, largely because patient themselves do not prefer this, I am a steadfast believer in polite introductions including a eye contact and handshake.