A Glen Haven physician has been named a Member of the Order of Canada for his groundbreaking work on clinical decision making and patient safety.
Dr. Pat Croskerry, who worked in emergency medicine full time for 33 years, has authored or co-authored 4 books, 44 book chapters, and more than 100 publications in leading medical journals. In 2016 he was ranked by the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians in the top 10 of most impactful Canadian
medical educators in emergency medicine.
The Order of Canada recognizes individuals for their outstanding achievement, dedication to the
community, and service to the country. Croskerry was cited specifically for setting up the Critical Thinking Program at Dalhousie University for training doctors in clinical judgement and decision making aimed at
improving patient safety.
He says he is pleased that the citation by one of the country’s highest honours has drawn attention to the program because “historically, it has been a neglected area of clinical practice in medicine.”
“The critical thinking program put a focus on that process and emphasized the importance of how doctors think,” he adds. “Having a knowledge of medicine and an understanding of disease doesn’t guarantee a physician will always make an appropriate diagnosis.”
Croskerry notes that patient diagnoses are often influenced by a wide range of factors, including
workplace conditions, fatigue, the physician’s past experiences, and unconscious biases, which
he described as “the biggest threat to clinical reasoning and decision-making.”
He has devoted the last 25 years to increasing awareness among the medical community about these threats and offering strategies to overcome them. “How healthcare professionals make their decisions is probably their most important skill.”
by Calla Farn