Patterns of Interhospital Transfer in Emergency General Surgery, Transactive Memory in Trauma Resuscitation Teams, and Network Analysis

Presenter: Cindy Teng, MD (Advisors: Jeremy Kahn, MD, MS, MPH; Matthew R. Rosengart, MD, MPH)

Interhospital transfers are common for patients with emergency general surgery (EGS) conditions. However, the transfer system is often disorganized and not well optimized. The objective of Dr. Teng's team is to characterize patterns of interhospital transfer for patients with EGS conditions to identify inefficiencies in the EGS delivery system to improve patient outcomes. Transactive memory system (TMS) is the specialization of cognitive labor among team members that enables teams to assign tasks appropriately and know whom to consult for additional expertise. They examine whether trauma teams with stronger TMS are associated with better patient outcomes. They also plan to utilize methods in network analysis to examine organization of interhospital transfers and surgical trauma teams, with the goal of identifying potential gaps in the EGS interhospital transfer and trauma team systems to guide improvements in care delivery and patient outcomes.