Initiation of FOCUS

The SCA Foundation is pleased to announce initiation of the FOCUS project and is asking for cardiac anesthesia programs that would like to participate.

This project, Flawless Operative Cardiovascular Unified Systems, is a national research program to improve the safety of our patients undergoing cardiac surgery. John Nance, the lead FOCUS speaker at the 2007 SCA Annual Meeting, noted that “although individuals may make mistakes, it is possible for teams to be flawless”. The FOCUS research project was conceived with the goal to change patient care and to substantially decrease the incidence and severity of human error in the cardiac operating room through a scientific analysis leading to culture change. Following definition of the goal of the FOCUS initiative, a Request for Proposals was developed and 60 institutions submitted proposals. Through an extensive review and site visit process, the FOCUS Steering Committee has selected Dr. Peter Pronovost and his team at Johns Hopkins University to perform the research.