Comment by raphman | Hacker News Reader

Comment by raphman | Hacker News Reader

Some more sources I saved recently after learning about Elliott's work:

The original paper by Catchpole et al. (2006): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-9592.2006...

A quite interesting lecture on the whole project, given by Elliott in a racecar driver's suit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeMGrHcfRjY

Annotated transcript of the talk available here: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/formula-1-and-its-contri...

A WSJ article from 2006: A Hospital Races To Learn Lessons Of Ferrari Pit Stop: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116346916169622261 (archived copy: https://archive.is/xEbio)

Times article from 2024: The surgeon who used F1 pitstop techniques to save lives of babies: https://www.thetimes.com/sport/formula-one/article/professor... (archived copy: https://archive.is/1iGXK)

I found this quote from the paper by Catchpole et al. quite important:

"Whilst it is encouraging that analogies from other industries with longstanding cultures of safety and reliability may be extrapolated, it is also important to recognize the unique demands of health care. One crucial difference that emerged was that Formula 1 and aviation both have a relatively stable workforce, with minimal staff turnover. For example, out of about 20 members of a pit team, only one or two members change annually. In contrast, turnover of staff in health care is far higher, with six residents rotating every 3 months in the study unit, and a nurse turnover of approximately 10%."

Turnover could also be seen as an addressable problem. "People are dying because of poor staff retention and rotation practices" this could be studied and improved upon.

A novel mechanism would be for a patient suing a hospital for malpractice for failing to retain nursing staff which it seems could be proven to be linked to worse outcomes. And when it comes to it, liability lawsuits are an adequate last resort to push back against hospitals cutting corners with staffing levels and staff pay when it comes to nurses.

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