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Anticipation in Medicine and Healthcare: Implications for Improving Safety and Quality

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Handbook of Anticipation

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Abstract

The theoretical biologist, Robert Rosen, identified anticipation as a fundamental characteristic of living complex systems. This chapter provides a brief overview of Rosen’s anticipatory theory of complex systems and discusses the implication of these concepts for the physician-patient relationship, for clinical teams, and for the clinical team-patient/family relationship. It includes an overview of the current state of predictive analytics in healthcare and provides examples of healthcare organizations employing a combination of predictive analytic and anticipatory models in efforts to improve outcomes. Potential educational and research opportunities from an anticipatory approach to healthcare are discussed. An enhanced understanding of the characteristics and failure modes of anticipatory systems could enhance existing safety practices in healthcare organizations. This understanding could promote reductions in serious adverse events by decreasing communications failures that are the most common root cause of adverse events and by fostering greater openness to change when concerns about the plan of care are raised by clinicians, patients, or families.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, University of Washington, 356330, 98195, Seattle, WA, USA

    Thomas O. Staiger

  2. Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, University of Washington, 1959 NE Pacific, 98195, 356522, Seattle, WA, USA

    Patricia A. Kritek

  3. Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, University of Washington, 356330, 98195, Seattle, WA, USA

    Gang Luo

  4. Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Peter Tarczy-Hornoch

Authors
  1. Thomas O. Staiger
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  2. Patricia A. Kritek
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  3. Gang Luo
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  4. Peter Tarczy-Hornoch
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas O. Staiger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Sociology & Social Research, University of Trento Dept of Sociology & Social Research, Trento, Italy

    Roberto Poli

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Staiger, T.O., Kritek, P.A., Luo, G., Tarczy-Hornoch, P. (2017). Anticipation in Medicine and Healthcare: Implications for Improving Safety and Quality. In: Poli, R. (eds) Handbook of Anticipation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_32-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_32-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31737-3

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