In 1921, Harvard professor Lawrence Joseph Henderson proclaimed that medicine had crossed a “great divide.” Henderson made this assertion because he said that—for the first time in human history—a random patient had at least even odds of benefitting from an encounter with a random doctor. While it’s stunning to consider the advancements made in surgery over the past century, this exponential progress has also created complex clinical environments in which errors and missed opportunities may place patients at risk for adverse events and suboptimal outcomes.

To address these complexities, surgeons must stay informed on current best practices in patient care and evolving technologies to optimize patient outcomes and mitigate risks. Juan Sanchez, MD, FACS, and Anthony Yang, MD, MS, FACS, will co-moderate today’s session on Ten Hot Topics in Patient Safety. The 90-minute session will begin at 9:45 am in Room 6B on the upper level of the San Diego Convention Center.

“In the past, the skill of the surgeon really made the most impact on the well-being of a patient,” Dr. Sanchez said. “While a surgeon’s technical skill remains paramount, the complexity of surgical procedures today requires high-performing interprofessional teams that employ practices to enhance communication, coordination, and reliability in ensuring optimal outcomes.”

To combat the potential for unintentional patient harm, healthcare professionals are increasingly applying techniques and practices from other high-risk industries, such as aviation, where the use of structured communication to ensure the receiver has interpreted a message correctly has been developed to reduce accidents. These types of best practices mitigate risks and are fundamental to safe surgical care and highly reliable processes in surgical areas.

“Anybody who’s involved in taking care of surgical patients should attend this session,” Dr. Sanchez said. “This is not geared only toward the surgeons, but the entire surgical team.”

With 10 different presentations, attendees can be sure they will leave with several timely and impactful lessons that will lower risks to their patients.

For those who are unable to attend the session, it will be livestreamed and made available for on-demand viewing within an hour after the live presentation.

The full presentation schedule includes:

• Team-Based Care: Effective Teamwork and Communication, Mike K. Liang, MD, Sugar Land, TX
• Preventing Surgical Site Infections, Sanda A. Tan, MD, FACS, Gulf Breeze, FL
• Patient Optimization and Enhanced Recovery, Steven C. Cunningham, MD, FACS, Baltimore, MD
• Correct Patient, Site, and Procedure, David S. Lind, MD, FACS, Fleming Island, FL
• Optimizing Safety in Robot-Assisted Surgery, Heidi Bahna, MD, FACS, FASCRS, Lantana, FL
• Unintentionally Retained Surgical Items, Joshua D. Hagan, MD, FACS, Ocala, FL
• Frailty and Delirium, Saptarshi Biswas, MBBS, FRCS, FACS, Myrtle Beach, MD, SC
• Managing Preoperative Anticoagulation and Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Prevention, Joseph D. Love, DO, FACS, Missouri City, TX
• Strategies to Reduce Postoperative Pain: Multimodal Analgesia Strategies from a Surgeon’s Perspective, Jason M. Clark, MD FACS, Charleston, SC