Keynote Speaker

May Pian-Smith, MD, MS

Associate Professor of Anesthesia, Harvard Medical School
Chief of Quality & Safety, Dept of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital

Keynote Address: Teaming, talking and trusting: Fostering relationships as a scaffold for best outcomes

In this lecture, Dr Pian-Smith will highlight lessons learned about the roles of speaking up, relational coordination and trust to foster a collaborative safety culture. She will draw from original research, including simulation-based programming, interprofessional team-training and qualitative analysis of interviews. The session will stimulate reflection about how we best collaborate within our highly-matrixed teams for learning, patient safety and for clinician wellness. Tactics will be identified to form a toolbox for simulation and education leaders.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to summarize the types of communication that are key for successful relational coordination
2. Participants will be able to describe ways in which enhanced communication has been linked to improved patient outcomes and worker retention/satisfaction
3. Participants will be able to describe novel (virtual) programming that has successfully broadened the impact of interprofessional team-training exercises

Biography

May Pian-Smith, MD, MS is Associate Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and Distinguished Scholar of Quality and Safety in the Dept of Anesthesia, Critical Care & Pain Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. As the Chief of the Division of Quality and Safety, she oversees the coordinated work of the Quality Assurance Committee and the Quality & Safety Improvement Committee. She also oversees the Peer Support program, realizing that supporting worker wellness and resiliency is a patient safety strategy.

Dr. Pian-Smith’s research that has been funded by the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER) and the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) has focused on “speaking up” across hierarchical gradients, with the goal of improving education, enhancing the role and responsibility of all members of care teams, and supporting safety culture. She is currently PI of an APSF-supported multi-institutional and interdisciplinary study of “trust” between surgeons and anesthesiologists. She has advanced fellowship training in medical education (Harvard Medical School) and patient safety leadership (NPSF-AHA) and lectures nationally and internationally about anesthesiology, diversity, medical education, safety culture and patient safety.

Dr. Pian-Smith also serves on the Board of Directors of FAER and the Anesthesia Foundation. She is the President-Elect of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP), and serves on the Board of Trustees of the MGPO of Massachusetts General Hospital.