All Doctors Are Jackasses

‘All Doctors Are Jackasses’ is the title of the talk I gave at SMACC as part of the ‘Mind of the Resuscitationist’ plenary with Scott Weingart, Cliff Reid and Simon Carley.

This is the abstract for the talk:

It will come as no surprise that the title of this talk was not taken from ‘How to win friends and influence people’. The subject may make you feel uneasy, and so it should, but no resuscitationist can afford to ignore it. You might think that you are not a ‘Jackass’, but cognitive science tell us to expect that – the ‘blindsight bias’ is universal. I will convince you that you are indeed a ‘Jackass’ and I will show you why. Together we will delve into the workings of the human mind to understand how we think, and how our minds can (and frequently do) sabotage us in critical life-or-death situations. Finally, we will explore ways we can overcome our universal ‘Jackassness’ and become better doctors so that we can keep patients safe and help save lives.

The content of the talk stands on the shoulders of two giants: Pat Croskerry and Daniel Kahneman — I list both among my heroes.

The slides I used are below:

This is what people tweeted about the talk on Twitter:

The talk itself will be made freely available online in the next couple of weeks… Until then, you’ll have to make do with this.

References and Links

Lifeinthefastlane.com

• CCC — Affective Dispositions to Respond (aka emotional biases)
• CCC — Cognitive Dispositions to Respond (aka cognitive biases)
• To Err is Human 001 — Entrapped
• To Err is Human 002 — Are you Satisficed?

The title of the talk was inspired by one of my teachers, forensic pathologist Tim Koelmeyer – he features in these LITFL posts:

• The Breakfast Club

• See For Yourself
• Dispel the Smell from Hell

Journal Articles and Textbooks

• Croskerry P. Diagnostic Failure: A Cognitive and Affective Approach. In: Henriksen K, Battles JB, Marks ES, Lewin DI, editors. Advances in Patient Safety: From Research to Implementation (Volume 2: Concepts and Methodology). Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2005 Feb. PubMed PMID: 21249816. [Free Full Text]
• Croskerry P. Context is everything or how could I have been that stupid? Healthc Q. 2009;12 Spec No Patient:e171-6. PubMed PMID: 19667765. [Free Full Text]
• Croskerry P, Cosby KS, Schenkel SM, Wears RL. Patient Safety in Emergency Medicine, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009. [Google Books Preview]
• Kahneman D. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2011 [Google Books Preview]

Social Media and Web Resources

• Daniel Kahneman | Edge.org
• Free Emergency Talks — Talks by Patrick Croskerry
• The Short Coat — Thinking about thinking
• The Short Coat — Anchors Aweigh! Cognitive Bias – Where IS This Ship Headed?
• The Short Coat — Metacognition For The Pragmatist