On Friday, April 19th, I was one of 20 TEDMED Social Media Narrators assigned to twenty Great Challenges workshops. I was assigned to, and live-tweeted from, Eliminating Medical Errors. Here are my tweets. I’ve changed their order to reflect common themes and annotated where necessary or useful. There were lots of retweets from folks not in the workshop or at TEDMED, and lots of replies too.
First off, here we are! Can you spot me?
+1 RT @ @ thank U 4 your contribution Charles! Looking 4ward 2 group pic!
— Charles Webster, MD()
And here is the final workshop statement. (I told you I was going to change the order of the tweets. This way if you don’t read this whole post, you’ll still have gotten the maximum value for your effort thus far. By the way, this is called a “greedy algorithm” in computer science.)
2/2 Eliminating workshop final statement
— Charles Webster, MD()
A message to my Twitter followers so they have an inkling of why I am suddenly flooding their Twitter stream with tweets about #MedicalError…
Note to followers: I’m livetweeting workshop on (see my blog post )
— Charles Webster, MD()
The Eliminating Medical Errors workshop was first addressed by Helen Haskell, the founder of Mothers Against Medical Error. Her Twitter account is .
.@ Helen Haskell, who spoke to workshop, founded Mothers Against website
— Charles Webster, MD()
Hearing story from mom of how son died from pain medication after surgery due to lack of coordination
— Charles Webster, MD()
Why did son die? Came to hospital dehydrated, perf ulcer (no one noticed) given dangerous medication
— Charles Webster, MD()
Been changes since son died, less likely to die now, but still be problem still massive problem
— Charles Webster, MD()
The following was an interesting comment: “Don’t let get ‘baked’ into EHRs.” It was said in passing, as part of list of calls for government action, technological innovation, and then the “baked” in comment. I believe, though cannot be sure, this was a reference to published reports of medical error due to EHR (mis-)design, (mis-)implementation, and (mis-)use. I’ll not revisit that debate here, except to note that, on the whole, I’d describe workshop participants as cautiously optimistic about the potential for electronic health records to reduce medical error. But they also recognized the potential for EHRs to be part of the problem too.
Head of mothers against : need government action, tech innovation (don’t let get “baked” into EHRs)
— Charles Webster, MD()
The following clump of tweets revolves around the theme of design, transparency and incentives.
EHRs were built out from billing systems, need more interactive patients 2b able to correct mistakes
— Charles Webster, MD()
Big question: Are safe practices profitable (written on white board)
— Charles Webster, MD()
Another Big Question: What is the right mix of penalties & incentives
— Charles Webster, MD()
Big Question #3: How does one get get data about
— Charles Webster, MD()
Excuse the typo in the following tweet. I meant, “Transparency is Transformative.” I’m guessing the RTers figured that out. Or maybe not! Maybe there is transparency in transformation…
“Transparency in transformative”
— Charles Webster, MD()
From audience: We need not just better designed EHRs but also open source EHRs to reduce
— Charles Webster, MD()
Well, you get the idea! Feel free to browse the rest of the tweets. I enjoyed the whole experience immensely.
Thank you TEDMED!
Article mentioned: Hospitals Profit From Surgical Errors, Study Finds
— Charles Webster, MD()
Audience: When U pay 4 something, U can check the receipt 4 errors, patients need receipts from EHRs
— Charles Webster, MD()
Patients need “safe space” in which to ask “Somethings doesn’t feel right”
— Charles Webster, MD()
(Discussion points coming up…) Roles & Responsibility (re ): patients, providers, gov’t, adminitrators
— Charles Webster, MD()
Doing my part! RT @ is trending in tailored trends, folks — keep the amazing conversation going
— Charles Webster, MD()
“Radical transparency is necessary but must be evenly distributed” otherwise more rigorous penalized
— Charles Webster, MD()
I call them the “Tweetin’ Twenty” (still missing three!) > List of “social media narrators”
— Charles Webster, MD()
System engineering: best place address during system design but how 2 deal with legacy (EHR?) systems
— Charles Webster, MD()
Could patients could have a personal “black box” like aviation to consult after a ?
— Charles Webster, MD()
+1 Workshop participant: is subset of problem of how to speed innovation & diffusion of best practice
— Charles Webster, MD()
Workshop participant: Need mix of systematic engineering, technology, love & trust to prevent
— Charles Webster, MD()
Workshop participant: Need mix of systematic engineering, technology, love & trust to prevent
— Charles Webster, MD()
mix of DX, timeliness, instruction, etc (CW: hmm, errors of commision vs omission, slips vs mistakes)
— Charles Webster, MD()
How to make more safe practices more financially desirable?
— Charles Webster, MD()
What is the right mix of penalties and incentives?
— Charles Webster, MD()
Using “guilt” vs “pride” to motivate?
— Charles Webster, MD()
How 2 get to best practices and disseminate them? (pride/guilt: no way 2 know if data is good or bad)
— Charles Webster, MD()
Credit report analogy: we can see what banks r seeing, patients need 2 see what care givers r seeing
— Charles Webster, MD()
@ tru but IMO need “open source” transparency @ level of workflow processes not case statement
— Charles Webster, MD()
1/2 2013 focus: transparency of data/reporting, open source/accessibility, design, best practices
— Charles Webster, MD()
2/2 2013 focus accountability all stakeholders, National Patient Safety Board?
— Charles Webster, MD()
We need 2 identify biggest problem we can actually solve: Hand washing? others? to champion question?
— Charles Webster, MD()
Discussion of checklists, personal experience in surgery: did patient get antibiotics? etc They work
— Charles Webster, MD()
1/2 r 3rd leading cause of death/disability AND everyone suffers… BUT we can do more…
— Charles Webster, MD()
Here I am on stage @ It’s over 🙁 Props Tweetin Twenty! To my followers: TY 4 your patience!
— Charles Webster, MD()
Thank YOU! Please think of me for similar next year! RT @ @ Great job tweeting — thank you!
— Charles Webster, MD()
One last tweeted photo. My and my Day Social Media button. 🙂
— Charles Webster, MD()