Dimitrios Karakitsos
Keck medical school USC(University of Southern California), USA
Title: Trauma Team Dynamics
Biography
Biography: Dimitrios Karakitsos
Abstract
Background: In trauma care, teams of experts are using modern technology and techniques to secure life and limb, conserve organs in acute peril and manage chronic complications. Trauma care also requires the coordination of individuals with different biases, priorities, personalities, skill sets and timelines. Although the American College of Surgeons’ Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course has been the backbone of trauma care, it focuses on the sole practitioner, rather than how we function in larger teams and complex situations.
Methods: In 1977, a large aviation disaster has led NASA to the development of crew resource management training. These ideas have been adapted to medicine and resulted in crisis resource management (CRM) training. Human errors in medicine are estimated to contribute to approximately 100,000 annual deaths in the United States alone. Simulation trauma team training typically encompasses five keys areas: communication, leadership and followership, resource utilization, problem solving and situational awareness. While even routine civilian trauma can be challenging, add to this the potential for natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and other such fluid environments and CRM training becomes imperative. Finally, CRM logistics have led to the development of temporary constructs such as Emerging Multi-Organizational Networks (EMON) which consist of task-oriented and mission specific collaborations of individuals and resources.
Conclusions: The addition of CRM skills to modern trauma care is of growing interest. Whether the former may improve team performance, team empathy and patient outcomes is an area of on-going research.