Patient safety is a critical issue in medicine today. There is, rightly, a strong emphasis on systems approaches to improving medical care and decreasing error. However, medicine is fundamentally a human endeavor. Without attention to the human aspects of the medical enterprise—emotions, cognitive abilities, biases, communication—crucial aspects of patient safety will remain beyond our grasp.

CME Objectives: At the end of this lecture participants should be better able to:

1. Describe how the culture of medicine can endanger the health and safety of patients.

2. Explain the role of emotions, cognition, and communication regarding medical error.

3. Explore opportunities to improve the delivery of care while navigating an imperfect health care environment.

This session is part of a combined Grand Rounds for the Office of Faculty Affairs and Leadership Development’s Wellness Expo.

Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, D.Litt (Hon), FACP

Clinical Professor of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine

Editor-in-Chief, Bellevue Literary Review

Author of “What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear,” and the forthcoming “When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error.”