Making patients safer in surgery

Surgery is getting safer thanks to research by an Oxford University team that has brought together two previously competing theories about how best to protect patients. Previous attempts to improve patient safety in surgery used one of two approaches. Some investigators tried to improve teamwork and communication by training team members to interact better, using principles developed in the aviation industry. Others have focused on the systems of work and used industrial quality improvement techniques to rationalise these and remove or modify steps which carry a high risk of error. It is not enough to just fix the system and it's not enough to just train the team. You have to do both. Professor Peter McCulloch, Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences - A programme of studies, funded by the Programme Grants for Applied Research section of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), was carried out over four years by the Department of Surgical Sciences at Oxford University.