Surgeons' Intra-Operative Decision-Making and Risk Management
Project leads: Lucy Mitchell, l.mitchell@abdn.ac.uk 01224 273212 & Profs Rhona Flin, George Youngson & Mr Irfan Ahmed
Funded by the Scottish Funding Council, this project (2008-12) investigates decision-making and surgical performance. Most surgical decision making research has concerned pre-operative decisions and in contrast, there has been very little research on what happens during operations. Using techniques developed by aviation researchers, this project is examining how surgeons make decisions during the intra-operative phase.
Current studies include interviews with consultant and trainee surgeons to examine decision making and risk management in challenging cases and a questionnaire study of surgeons' decision styles and risk management.
Flin, R., Youngson, G. & Yule, S. (2007), How do surgeons make intraoperative decisions? Quality and Safety in Health Care, 16, 235-239.
Pauley, K., Flin, R., Yule, S. & Youngson, G. (in press). Surgeons' intraoperative decision making and risk management. American Journal of Surgery.