Our paper reporting on the time and estimated cost of rounding was selected by the Cardiothoracic surgery network for discussion. The paper itself is now open for free access, as well!

An analysis of videotaped "cardiac rounds" in a pediatric intensive care unit was published in the current issue of Annals of Thoracic Surgery. The analysis was part of a National Science Foundation project to understand discourse during group meetings known as rounds. Although a significant amount of time is spent on rounds, our understanding of rounds' structures and goals is very limited. This paper is a first to describe time and cost conducting multidisciplinary rounds.

The last day for Yan here at University of Maryland is September 11, 2009. He will be director for patient safety research for Baylor Health Care System in Dallas. His email box should still receive email for the next few months. 

With the extraordinary support by colleagues, Yan was promoted to Full-Professor (with tenure) of anesthesiology. 

Dr. Yan Xiao PhD has been promoted to tenured Professor of Anesthesiology, University of Maryland Medical School.   Congratulations!!!

Yan delivered a presentation on "Simulation, live teams and videotape:
All for the sake of patient safety" at University Hospital Zurich Institute of Anesthesiology ("Ausserordentliche Mittwochsfortbildung). The presentation provided a summary of the projects at University of Maryland over the past few years on how video is used to promote patient safety.

The fall symposium of American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) will have three abstracts from our group. One is from Sibil on the use of continuous high frequency physiological data in monitoring traumatic brain injury; another is from Peter on the experience of video and physiological data collection for training and research; and a third is from Yan on the experience of computerized support for rounding.

A paper describing an analysis of time spent during cardiac rounds in pediatric intensive care unit was just accepted by Annals of Thoracic Surgery (lead author: Dr. Marcelo Cardarelli). Video recordings of multidisciplinary cardiac surgery rounds were analyzed for time spent and associated direct costs of participants were calculated. Surprisingly the direct costs of rounding per patient was less than $150, and a third was spent on reporting on normal lab results.

Yan was the first speaker at the 12th Annual Risk Management and Captive Insurance Symposium sponsored by Cassatt and Abington Memorial Hospital of Pennsylvania. The presentation provided an overview of key concepts in human factors as related to risks and patient safety.

Peter made podium presentations at American Telemedicine Association's Annual Meeting on the data collection system for medevac helicopter and ambulance transported patients.