It’s long been said that medicine is part science, part art. The science tells you so much, but while you may have one way of performing a procedure or exam, a colleague down the hall approaches it in a slightly different way.
For example, when performing a breast exam: how much pressure do you use? Do you use a rubbing technique, a patting technique or a piano fingers technique? Is one better than another? In a complex surgery, what are the differences in decisions and technical approaches? Does that affect the outcome of the surgery?
By using sensor-enabled simulations, physicians are getting closer to having measurable data to answer the question of which techniques produce the best patient outcomes in the most efficient way, said Carla M. Pugh, MD, PhD. She is director of the Technology Enabled Clinical Improvement Center at Stanford Medicine and spoke at a recent event at the AMA’s Chicago headquarters.
The answers Dr. Pugh and her team uncover in their research can have a direct impact on medical education and clinical skills assessment. And biometric data may even be able to help address physician anxiety and burnout in high-performance settings… Continue reading.