| Entry Date | Source | Link | Source Type | Domain | Subdomain1 | Subdomain2 | Key Points | Citns |
| 2023-12-28 | Ross L. The intuitive psychologist and his shortcomings: Distortions in the attribution process. In: Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. Vol 10. Elsevier; 1977:173-220. | Link | Empirical study | Individuals | In general | Fundamental attribution error | A comprehensive account and summary of the evidence for, and definition of, the common human tendency to wrongly attribute problems to the 'dispositional' attributes of others rather than to the prevailing and often more important' situational ' or environmental causes/ | 8,512 |
| 2023-12-28 | Rotenstein LS, Huckman RS, Wagle NW. Making Patients and Doctors Happier ? The Potential of Patient-Reported Outcomes. New England Journal of Medicine. 2017;377(14):1309-1312. | Link | Review /Overview | Groups | Staff | Patient reported outcomes | Although patient reported outcome measurements have been rightly developed to measure this important and sometimes neglected measure of clinical effectiveness, this review describes the increasing realisation among doctors that access to this information makes their work both easier and more satisfying. | 242 |
| 2023-12-28 | Rothwell PM. External validity of randomised controlled trials: to whom do the results of this trial apply? The Lancet. 2005;365(9453):82-93. | Link | Empirical study | Groups | Patients | Statistical methods | A comprehensive account of the problems of deciding whether the results of randomised controlled trials have external validity - ie whether they are applicable in routine clinical practice - which often they do not. | 2,863 |
| 2023-12-28 | Rushmer R, Davies HTO. Unlearning in health care. Quality and safety in Health Care. 2004;13(suppl 2):ii10. | Link | Review /Overview | Groups | Organisations - hospitals | Unlearning | Much energy is rightly expended on developing effective individual and organisational learning resources and processes. Much less thought is given about the frequent need for unlearning of ineffective or harmful practices. This paper provides a good overview of both why this is needed and how it can be implemented. It also makes the important distinction between the nature of, and the very different approaches needed for, 'routine' vs 'deep' unlearning | 213 |
| 2023-12-28 | Santomauro CM, Kalkman CJ, Dekker S. Second victims, organizational resilience and the role of hospital administration. Journal of Hospital Administration. 2014;3(5):p95. | Link | Review /Overview | Individuals | Clinicians | Adverse events | In the considerable and entirely appropriate efforts that are made dealing with and minimising the harm to patients afflicted by adverse events, the need for effective support and management for the clinicians involved is often overlooked. This paper outlines how this harm can be both exacerbated by inappropriate and ameliorated by appropriate organisational responses. | 35 |
| 2023-12-28 | Tali Sharot: Intelligent People Have Greater Difficulty Changing Their Beliefs.; 2018. | Link | Video | Individuals | In general | Beliefs / attitudes | A clear account research showing why facts and figures often fail to persuade intelligent and well educated people to change their minds in the expected direction. The size and direction of the change is highly dependent on pre-existing beliefs | |
| 2023-12-28 | Spiegelhalter D, Grigg O, Kinsman R, Treasure T. Risk-adjusted sequential probability ratio tests: applications to Bristol, Shipman and adult cardiac surgery. International Journal for Quality in Health Care. 2003;15(1):7. | Link | Empirical study | Groups | Organisations - hospitals | Stat. process control | A powerfully persuasive argument for the use of statistical process control analytics in healthcare. This technique was used to clearly demonstrate significantly deficient pediatric cardiac surgery outcomes in a service compared with peer groups many years before this became impossible to ignore. So too in the case of patient deaths at the hand of GP mass murderer. The power of these simple statistical techniques so clearly demonstrated in this important paper is still less well recognised than it deserves. | 262 |
| 2023-12-28 | Tainter JA. The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge Univ Pr; 1990. | Link | Book | Systems | Complexity | Collapse | It may be difficult to persuade clinicians and health service managers, or anyone else for that matter, that reading a book by an archaeologist about the causes of collapse of ancient civilizations is worth their while but a good case can be made. This is because of the ever increasing resource costs of increasing complexity as a problem solving mechanism eventually reaches the point of diminishing returns on investments whether in whole civilizations or social enterprises such as healthcare. The graph the author shows (fig 11 p103) of the sharply declining productivity of healthcare in the last century is striking. | 4,562 |
| 2023-12-28 | Volpp KG, Grande D. Residents suggestions for reducing errors in teaching hospitals. N Engl J Med. 2003;348(9):851-855. | Link | Empirical study | Individuals | Doctors | Error | A short and instructive list of the simple and seemingly obvious but often overlooked ways in which errors could have been avoided and residents lives made a lot easier | 389 |
| 2023-12-28 | Walshe K, Shortell SM. When things go wrong: how health care organizations deal with major failures. Health Affairs. 2004;23(3):103. | Link | Review /Overview | Groups | Organisations - hospitals | Cultures - organisational | Key commonalities : 1 Longstanding, 2 Well known but not well handled, 3 Cause immense harm, 4 Lack of management systems, 5) Repeated incidents 6.Not discovered by 'quality assurance' systems, Exacerbated by 'club culture'; fragmented knowledge and responsibility and a high capacity for self deception | 240 |
| 2023-12-28 | Ward M. Appendix 6.1 on Clinical Networks in Queensland Heath Systems Review Forster Report pp 391-399. Published online 2005. | Link | Report /White paper | Groups | Organisations - hospitals | Networks - occupational | A commentary on two types of clinician leadership and a proposal that led to the formation of clinical networks in Queensland | |
| 2023-12-28 | Wennberg J, Gittelsohn A. Small Area Variations in Health Care Delivery A population-based health information system can guide planning and regulatory decision-making. Science. 1973;182(4117):1102-1108. | Link | Empirical study | Groups | Organisations - hospitals | Variation | A seminal paper from one of the pioneers in the study of the wide and often unjustified variations in clinical practices from place to place. It is worth noting and rather depressing that this important paper was rejected by several leading medical journals. In some services the importance of looking for and correcting unjustified variations in the evidence based processes, outcomes and costs of clinical practice are still overlooked. | 2,604 |
| 2023-12-28 | Wu AW, Folkman S, McPhee SJ, Lo B. Do house officers learn from their mistakes? JAMA. 1991;265(16):2089-2094. | Link | Review /Overview | Individuals | Doctors | Learning | In short the answer in the authors' words was that: "..Mistakes included errors in diagnosis (33%), prescribing (29%), evaluation (21%), and communication (5%) and procedural complications (11%). Patients had serious adverse outcomes in 90% of the cases, including death in 31% of cases. Only 54% of house officers discussed the mistake with their attending physicians, and only 24% told the patients or families" | 1,090 |
| 2023-09-01 | Thomas EJ, Sexton JB, Helmreich RL. Discrepant attitudes about teamwork among critical care nurses and physicians. Critical care medicine. 2003;31(3):956-959. | Link | Empirical study | Groups | Teams | Social identity | A study of f the quality of teamwork and communications in 8 intensive care units showing that in several areas doctors and nurses have very different perceptions. 73% of physicians for instance considered the quality of their collaboration and communications with nurses to be high or very high whereas the only 33% of nurses were of the same opinion. | 1,072 |
| 2023-09-01 | Bartunek JM. Intergroup relationships and quality improvement in healthcare. BMJ Quality & Safety. 2011;20(Suppl 1):i62-i66 | Link | Review /Overview | Groups | Teams | Social factors | A proposal that relationships among healthcare professionals that influence the quality of care delivered depends on the interplay of three types of dynamics: social identity, communities of practice and socialisation into particular professional identities | 130 |
| 2023-08-19 | Edmondson AC, Bohmer RM, Pisano GP. Disrupted routines: Team learning and new technology implementation in hospitals. Administrative Science Quarterly. 2001;46(4):685-716. | Link | Empirical study | Groups | Teams | Learning | A comprehensive analysis of the factors that determined the effectiveness of the uptake of a new technique of minimally invasive cardiac surgery in 16 USA hospitals. Focused on the key determinants of success in the introduction of such innovations by designated teams, but also relevant to the sociology of communities of practice. | 2,501 |
| 2023-08-19 | Wenger EC. Introduction to communities of practice - wenger-trayner. Published January 12, 2022. https://www.wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/ | Link | Web site | Groups | Communties /networks | Communities of practice | An insightful but not widely recognised concept developed by Etienne Wenger which he defines as : " Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly." Equally applicable wherever humans gather together for some shared activity whether social, occupational, or recreational. | |
| 2023-07-28 | Gawande A. The Coach in the Operating Room | The New Yorker. September 26 2011 | Link | Essay /Article | Individuals | Doctors | Coaching | Atul Gawande is an accomplished surgeon, public health researcher and writer. This is one of several eloquent and thoughtful essays published in the New Yorker on medical topics. In this one he raises the question of why it should be that eminent musicians and elite sports stars accept the need for ongoing coaching, but not as rule surgeons and other medical specialists. He points out the good evidence that coaching works well in improving the performance of other professionals such as teachers, and recounts his own experiences in using a surgical colleague as a coach | |
| 2023-07-28 | Stanovich KE, Toplak ME. The Rationality Quotient: Toward a Test of Rational Thinking. MIT Press; 2016. | Link | Book | Individuals | Cognition | Rationality |
An overview of the work of the authors in investigating the important differences between intelligence and rationality or between algorithmic and reflective thinking. They include details of the test that they use to measure rationality and they also define and explain the important differences between 'epistemic' and 'instrumental' rationality: " Epistemic rationality is about what is true and instrumental rationality is about what to do. For our beliefs to be rational they must correspond to the way the world is— they must be true. For our actions to be rational, they must be the best means toward our goals— they must be the best things to do. Nothing could be more practical or useful for a person’s life than the thinking processes that help them find out what is true and what is best to do. " |
|
| 2023-07-27 | Robson D. The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Stupid Mistakes - and How to Make Wiser Decisions.; 2019 | Link | Book | Individuals | In general | Error | A comprehensive account with examples of the types of error that interfere with the abilities of intelligent people to make optimal decisions, together with some advice about how these problems can be avoided |