Roundup from IMSH2014.

I had an excellent time at the International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare. I was able to participate in a panel discussion and presentation of my work at MECMC. I sat in on a number of cool classes, and showed the poster of my work as well. I made connections with people in ECC (in the medical school of UHR), and also a professor from Seattle. There was one really interesting class I took on patient safety that I though was a great new (to me) way to look at safety in a hospital environment.

Like many good ideas, it involves a simple and straightforward way of looking at the world. They called it “Safety II”, which sort of reminded me of Type I and Type II error in statistics. Safety I, traditional patient safety thinking, involves trying to minimize errors and adverse events, and analyzing them when they do occur. Safety II means looking at those institutions with very low error rates, and trying to understand what they’re doing right. Then, adopt what they’re showcasing in terms of good patient safety. This seems to me like an intuitive but novel approach to patient safety.

And I won the raffle! IMSH2015 is in New Orleans, and I will be attending, almost certainly. Because I won a raffle that gives me two nights free hotel for the conference. It was very exciting. I’m a weirdly lucky dude. I win this kind of thing with a frequency that seems out-of-line with the real world probability. It’s clearly supernatural.

So I was pleased with the conference and with the time I spent away from work getting a lot of sleep and working out in the fabulous gym at the San Francisco Marriot Marquis (Thank you, MECMC!). I even swam. I’m still sore, but my body will thank me for working hard, right? I hope.

Now I need to buckle down and get a lot of work done in February, because in March I’m going away for two weeks. Japan and Korea. Very excited. And a little nervous. Language will be challenging. But that’s all part of the excitement. Life is good. I’m moving forward. I know how to let go of things that are not positive for me, or that I don’t contribute well to, and how to embrace things that are promising. I’m doing both these days. And I’m excited.