I talk with Denham Ward, MD, PhD on the topic of expertise in anesthesia.  Dr Ward is currently the director of the Academy at Maine Medical Center Institute for Teaching Excellence and a Professor of Anesthesiology at Tufts University School of Medicine.  He is Emeritus Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology and Emeritus Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Rochester.

This podcast focuses on the idea of developing and maintaining expertise over a career in anesthesia.  Highlights range from defining expertise, specialization in anesthesia, types of problem solving and clinical decision making and how to teach and coach the development of expertise in trainees as well as experienced clinicians.

“The difference between medicine and music is… musicians practice, practice, practice and then they go to Carnegie Hall for one evening…  We’re essentially at Carnegie Hall every day.”  Denham Ward, MD, PhD

References:

Ericsson, K. A. (2015). Acquisition and Maintenance of Medical Expertise: A Perspective From the Expert – Performance Approach With Deliberate Practice. Academic Medicine, 90(11), 1471. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000000939

Gawande, A. (2011). Personal best. The New Yorker, (30). 44.  Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/03/personal-best.

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Moulton, C. E., Regehr, G., Mylopoulos, M., & MacRae, H. M. (2007). Slowing down when you should: a new model of expert judgment. Academic Medicine: Journal Of The Association Of American Medical Colleges, 82(10 Suppl), S109-S116.