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Our Weekly Insights by Dan Flanders, Founder & CEO
“Data drives decisions.” Those three words are the foundation on which PrePlanLive was founded. Throughout my career – beginning with my education and technical training, and extending through both my career in anesthesia and my passion for aviation – the decisions I have made (and continue to make) are grounded by the same mantra. Whether a complex neurosurgical case or a low approach aviation scenario, I begin each with deliberate planning, planning which translates into educated decisions and purposeful actions.
When practicing anesthesia, this deliberate planning is know as “evidence-based practice;” in the aviation world, the term is Crew Resource Management. The ‘data-driven decision’ model plays a significant role in the exemplary safety records of both arenas (*anesthesia and **aviation). These highly safe occupations – despite being (1) highly technical, (2) dependent on quality decision-making by a human, and (3) high-risk in general – gained and maintained their impressive industry safety records through the application of rigorous standards and implementation of experience-based procedure and protocols. Regardless of which industry we examine, the common (and key) characteristics of anesthesia and aviation are (1) the consistent development and execution of “the plan” and (2) the maintenance of situational awareness throughout the entire life-cycle of the event (e.g., the surgical procedure or the flight).
The PrePlanLive team have leveraged the key characteristics discussed above in developing what we’ve termed THE Critical Incident Management application for the 21st Century. We’ve used evidence-based practice to inform the development of PrePlanLive, and we’ve created evidence-based practice for the employment of PrePlanLive. We’ve taken planning – and the tools available to plan – to the next level, with an emphasis on situational awareness pre-incident, during an incident, and in post-incident/recovery operations.
I look forward to sharing more about our vision, methodologies, and the the approach we’ve taken during the creation (and continued development) of PrePlanLive. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to reach out – we would be happy to speak with you!
Thank you for your dedication to safety and preparedness.
*Anesthesia Safety: How Safe is ‘Safe,’ https://www.apsf.org/article/anesthesia-safety-how-safe-is-safe/
**Fact Sheet – Out Front on Airline Safety: Two Decades of Continuous Evolution, https://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=22975