Persistent service even in disruptive times: an introduction to resilience engineering.

Building resilient libraries will take energy and courage. It will take a willingness to step outside our traditional roles and engage in the messy, tough work of redefining ourselves and our institutions [1].

Beyond Dr. Google: the evidence on consumer-facing digital tools for diagnosis.

Over a third of adults go online to diagnose their health condition. Direct-to-consumer (DTC), interactive, diagnostic apps with information personalization capabilities beyond those of static search engines are rapidly proliferating. While these apps promise faster, more convenient and more accurate information to improve diagnosis, little is known about the state of the evidence on their performance or the methods used to evaluate them. We conducted a scoping review of the peer-reviewed and gray literature for the period January 1, 2014­June 30, 2017. We found that the largest category of evaluations involved symptom checkers that applied algorithms to user-answered questions, followed by sensor-driven apps that applied algorithms to smartphone photos, with a handful of evaluations examining crowdsourcing. The most common clinical areas evaluated were dermatology and general diagnostic and triage advice for a range of conditions. Evaluations were highly variable in methodology and conclusions, with about half describing app characteristics and half examining actual performance. Apps were found to vary widely in functionality, accuracy, safety and effectiveness, although the usefulness of this evidence was limited by a frequent failure to provide results by named individual app. Overall, the current evidence base on DTC, interactive diagnostic apps is sparse in scope, uneven in the information provided and inconclusive with respect to safety and effectiveness, with no studies of clinical risks and benefits involving real-world consumer use. Given that DTC diagnostic apps are rapidly evolving, rigorous and standardized evaluations are essential to inform decisions by clinicians, patients, policymakers and other stakeholders.

Tapping into the wisdom in the room: results from participant discussion at the 7th International Conference on Diagnostic Error in Medicine facilitated by a World Café technique.

The patient safety literature is full of exhortations to approach medical error from a system perspective and seek multidisciplinary solutions from groups including clinicians, patients themselves, as well as experts outside the traditional medical domain. The 7th annual International Conference on Diagnostic Error in Medicine sought to attract a multispecialty audience, and attempted to capture some of the conversations by engaging participants in a World Café, a technique used to stimulate discussion and preserve insight gained during the conference. We present the ideas generated in this session, discuss them in the context of psychological safety, and demonstrate the application of this novel technique.

Knowledge management: an innovative risk management strategy.

Knowledge management effectively lends itself to the enterprise risk process. The authors introduce the concept of knowledge management as a strategy to drive innovation and support risk management. They align this work with organizational efforts to improve patient safety and quality through the effective sharing of experience and lessons learned. The article closes with suggestions on how to develop a knowledge management initiative at an organization, who should be on the team, and how to sustain this effort and build the culture it requires to drive success.