The Clinical Data Recorder: What Shall Be Monitored?

Medical error has been identified as one of the major causes of deaths in the USA. To reduce the number of preventable deaths, it is necessary to study the causes that lead to medical error and improve the processes involved in the delivery of healthcare. Some tools and techniques have been adapted from other areas to healthcare. The Clinical Data Recorder (CDR) - an adaptation of the aviation’s Flight Data Recorder (FDR) - is a promising tool for the assessment of surgical errors because it can provide reliable data on healthcare adverse events. This paper presents some developments already done in the area of medical data recording and offers some suggestions to the improvement of the CDR concept. We also briefly discuss some questions still to be addressed before surgical procedures can be routinely recorded for risk management purposes.