TY - JOUR T1 - Crisis checklists in emergency medicine: another step forward for cognitive aids JF - BMJ Quality & Safety JO - BMJ Qual Saf SP - 689 LP - 693 DO - 10.1136/bmjqs-2021-013203 VL - 30 IS - 9 AU - Yun-Yun K Chen AU - Alexander Arriaga Y1 - 2021/09/01 UR - http://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/30/9/689.abstract N2 - A saying often attributed to George Bernard Shaw is ‘The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.’ While it has been debated who originally made this statement, this expression has been used across several industries in different ways.1–4 Communication is an essential aspect of patient safety. One could argue for expanding this proverb to emphasise the importance of recognising that communication at key moments is intrinsically valuable: the biggest problems in communication are the illusion that it has taken place and the assumption that it is not necessary.Over the past 100 years, cognitive aids for crisis events during patient care have been called for, developed, refined and examined.5–12 While much of this literature comes from high-risk industries and medical simulation, there is increasing supporting evidence from healthcare on how these tools can act as cognitive aids in clinical settings. Regarding terminology, we cite a review article on emergency manuals (EMs): ‘EMs are context-relevant sets of cognitive aids, such as crisis checklists, that are intended to provide professionals with key information for managing rare emergency events. Synonyms and related terms include crisis checklists; emergency checklists and cognitive aids, a much broader term, although often also used to describe tools for use during emergency events specifically.’13 Published accounts from healthcare professionals who experienced real-life events have described the power of these tools to prevent errors of omission, commission and lapses in communication.14–18 These events can be both common in large health systems and rare at the level of the individual clinician.10 It is also hard to predict when they will occur. These attributes create a meaningful role to study crisis checklists, EMs and other cognitive aids using medical simulation, particularly in healthcare settings (such as the emergency department (ED)) where … ER -