Speaker: Christopher P. Landrigan, MD, MPH is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Sleep and Patient Safety Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a practicing hospital-based pediatrician. He has 12 years’ experience studying the quality and safety of hospital care. Over the past several years Dr. Landrigan has led a series of studies evaluating the relationship between resident depression and patient safety; the effects of computerized order entry systems on rates of medication errors; and the relationship between resident handoffs and error. His primary focus, however, has been studying the effects of resident sleep deprivation on patient safety. Dr. Landrigan was a founding member of the Harvard Work Hours, Health, and Safety Group, and lead author of a randomized controlled trial that found interns working traditional 24-30 hour shifts made 36% more serious medical errors, and five times as many serious diagnostic errors, as interns whose scheduled work was limited to 16 consecutive hours(New Eng J Med 2004). He subsequently led a national cohort study in the United States and an intensive tri-center study which demonstrated that the existing work hour standards for junior doctors in the U.S. have been ineffective in reducing the risk of fatigue-related error (JAMA 2006; Pediatrics 2008), due to inherent limitations in the standards, and poor compliance with them. His current work focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of diverse approaches to reducing fatigue-related error, improving handoffs of care, and translating safety research into policy and practice.
Title: Physician Work Schedules, Sleep Deprivation, and Safety
Short summary: The objective of the lecture will be to:
• review key aspects of sleep and circadian biology that influence human alertness and performance;
• review the literature on sleep deprivation’s effects on physicians and patient safety; and
• to discuss the challenges and opportunities of applying this research to current scheduling practices.