My hope in joining the Telluride Summer Camp was to hear more patient safety issues from clinicians. How do they respond when something goes wrong? What functionalities do they expect if health information technology may help? What technology do they not like? – As poorly designed technologies may become a burden instead of being helpful. How do they learn from lessons? All of these questions mean a lot to me because I am on my way to becoming a medical informatician and a researcher who commits to improve patient safety and quality of health care through data science and information engineering.
A lesson I learned from the past three days is empathy. I told Dan the second day that ‘I am now learning to stand in a nurse and a physician’s shoes to think.’ How did I make that? I sit with fellow students and faculty watching films where real-world incidents are replicated. Those who were observed the tragedies, who lost their patients or kids, are sitting right with us. They are doctors, nurses, mothers, and they are our faculty. The films moved everybody not only because the tragedies make us feel painful deep inside but also make us thinking of how we want to make a change. And I have to ask myself such a question: How can I be of help? If my work could help clinicians to avoid a harm incident, I am also saving a life. If my work turns out to be useless or even a burden, I wouldn’t feel good. Empathy becomes motivation.