🎙️ On today’s podcast, I’m diving deep into the world of surgical innovation with Dr. Teodor Grantcharov, founder of Surgical Safety Technologies. He’s a visionary surgeon with a mission to make surgery safer. From humble beginnings in Bulgaria to pioneering Surgical Safety Technologies in the United States, his journey is as inspiring as it is impactful.

Growing up during communist times in Bulgaria, Dr. Grantcharov was deeply influenced by his mother and relatives, many of whom were doctors. This family legacy naturally led him into medicine, where he fell in love with surgery. For over 20 years, he has been a dedicated surgeon at Stamford, researching human performance in the operating room and striving to enhance surgical safety.

Starting his research career in 1999, Dr. Grantcharov aimed to develop a system to accurately measure surgical success. Despite facing skepticism and lack of support, his perseverance paid off in 2014 when he introduced the first prototype of his surgical black box into the operating room. Drawing inspiration from aviation, this black box technology captures comprehensive data on various factors affecting surgical outcomes, such as surgeon performance, team quality, distractions, fatigue, and stress.

Dr. Grantcharov's work is not just about identifying what went wrong but about understanding and predicting patient outcomes with greater accuracy. With medicine being the third leading cause of death in the US, the need for systems that learn from errors and improve efficiency is critical. His objective data approach aims to drive better decisions, enhancing both efficiency and safety in hospitals.

Despite concerns about monitoring, many surgeons see the value in learning and improving from objective feedback. Currently, there are 40,000 operating rooms in the US, but only 30 are equipped with his black box technology. The goal is to replace traditional beliefs with data-driven decisions, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and transparency in healthcare.

Tune in as we explore the power of data-driven decisions, the transformative potential of black box technology in surgery, and the importance of embracing a culture of learning and improvement in healthcare.

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