Grant: Patient-Oriented Research Collaboration Grants

Surgery is one of the most common patient experiences in the health care system. Yet, efforts to engage patients in surgical safety research have not matched those of other health care fields. This is a critical issue given the nature of surgery inhibits patients' abilities to advocate for themselves as they are typically under anesthetic when the procedure is performed. We plan to partner with patients throughout our research program, which uses the Operating Room Black Box (similar to aviation) to enhance surgical patient safety by proactively detecting and preventing avoidable errors through analysis of human factors such as teamwork. This partnership will be accomplished through a series of planned activities and skill development opportunities designed to build capacity and bring together patients, clinicians, researchers, and policy-makers to inform research and practice. Our patient partnerships will serve as a first step and pilot in building a model for patient engagement in the surgical safety field and will significantly contribute to improved quality of care and outcomes for surgical patients.