Coda Change

The pandemic has turned everything on its head, and, like with any major catastrophic event, there is an abundance of lessons, take-aways and the new opportunities to be explored in the healthcare setting. By harnessing the power of digital technology, we are now able to connect with the people from different departments, and open up to new ways to communicate. Sliding briefing and debriefing into the frontline work- briefing at the beginning of the shift and debriefing at the end, including mental rehearsal- provides the comfort of predictability, which enables us to better cope with the unexpected. What lessons have you learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic, and what does your new normal look like? Read more

An anaesthetist, Dr Rachael Grimaldi is a mum of 3 children under the age of 4, and is currently on maternity leave. Frustrated at not being able to join the frontline in the fight against COVID-19, Rachael saw an opportunity to improve communications with the patients whilst in full PPE by developing an innovative and simple resource, an app called CardMedic. Launched in 72 hours, the app is now improving patient care in 50 counties across the world. Tune in to hear Rachael tell Roger her remarkable story. MORE

Jesse, David and Swami are back in the second part of the Carr's Clinic podcast, nerding out on the ESPN's Last Dance documentary, featuring Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. It's interesting to see how the popularity of sport is leaning into the public health. What are the lessons can we learn from the NBA and The Last Dance documentary? Let's chat! https://codachange.org/2020/06/01/carrs-clinic-part-two/

After being in the trenches for 3 months, just how different will the medicine be in the future? Jesse, David and Swami talk about pivoting, steering the dinosaurs, and the lessons learnt along the way. One thing is certain- social inter-connectedness in healthcare is very important. To stay connected with Coda, subscribe https://codachange.org/you

In the part 2 of the special podcast with Simon Carley we touch on the issues of cognitive bias, that everything you see is COVID-related. Surrounded by the sea of COVID, just how do you manage the strokes, the acute myocardial infarcts, fractured neck aphemas, and the rest of it amidst this catastrophe? Simon shares his thoughts on the life outside COVID.

The legendary professor Simon Carley is joining us all the way from Manchester, UK to talk about positive innovations and evidence based agility. There is a fine balance between being slow to change and missing out on something that might benefit the patients, and jumping in too quickly into something harmful. The panic is understandable, what can we do about this virus, how can we treat it? The pressure to change is so high that the people are losing the plot with the evidence based medicine.

Haney Mallemat is sharing his experiences in Baltimore with Roger and Oli, talking innovation and the phases of creating and culling, as well as the importance of communication in the implementation stages. It's all about finding balance between what would protect you as a provider and give good outcomes for the patient. And sticking to the five principles for assessing new treatments and processes - Safe, Simple, Familiar, Reproducible and Robust.

This is part 2 of the special podcast featuring Reuben Strayer, sharing his first hand experience of the COVID-19 situation in New York with Ashley Liebig, the medical operations commander for the Travis County and a flight nurse. "There was only a brief period between when we first started noticing coronavirus and when seemingly everyone in the city had coronavirus", "emergency providers are working in an environment that resembles a lake filled with coronavirus".

This is part 1 of the special podcast featuring Reuben Strayer and Ashley Liebig, sharing their first hand experience of the COVID-19 situation in New York. "So many people in the region got infected at the same time, long before we were paying any attention to it. And as the patients got sicker, we started to notice a few things, such as this was oxygen deficit we never seen before".

Fear. Is it normal to be frightened during this pandemic, in this period of uncertainty, when we're so used to being very certain about what we do in an emergency and critical care? Does fear and uncertainty impact our communication? Do different departments use different language, do different departments communicate differently? And what do we need to address to help open the flow of communication, and make sure we are closing the loop?

Liz, Roger, Chris and Jon talk about communication and interdepartmental collaboration becoming the norm. If one good thing can come about from this COVID-19 crisis, it's that it could help us, staff members, but also more importantly, the patients in the future.