Rollin J. “Terry” Fairbanks, MD, MS, is the Vice President Quality  and Safety at MedStar Health, Professor of Emergency Medicine at  Georgetown University, and Founding Director of the National Center for  Human Factors in Healthcare. A board-certified emergency physician, he  practices in the MedStar Washington Hospital Center emergency  department. Dr. Fairbanks also holds an academic appointment as adjunct  associate professor of Industrial Systems Engineering at the University  at Buffalo. He earned a bachelors degree in mathematics and physics and a  masters degree in industrial systems engineering/human factors  engineering, and after medical school he completed specialty training in  emergency medicine, the HRET/NPSF Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship,  and Wharton’s Physician Leadership Certificate Program at MedStar  Health.

Trained in safety science prior to entering the medical field, Dr.  Fairbanks is also a former paramedic, EMS medical director, and general  aviation pilot, he is known for inspiring people to think differently  about healthcare’s approach to quality, safety, and risk. As a member of  the MedStar Health Leadership Team, he is responsible for system-wide  quality and safety.

Dr. Fairbanks has contributed more than 120 publications to the  healthcare quality and safety, human factors engineering and medical  literature, and co-edited a book on cognitive systems engineering in  healthcare. Dr. Fairbanks has served in many national and international  roles, including the National Patient Safety Foundation Board of  Advisors, the POLITICO Health IT Advisory Forum, AHRQ Patient Safety  Network Technical Expert Advisory Panel, and he is a Health Research and  Educational Trust (HRET) Senior Fellow. He has served in advisory roles  for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Pew  Charitable Trusts, the American Medical Association, and has held formal  consultative roles with the US, Australian, British, and Spanish  governments. In 2017, he was listed by Becker’s Hospital Review in Top  50 Experts Leading the Field of Patient Safety.

View Dr. Fairbanks' publications on PubMed

View Dr. Fairbanks’ Complete Bibliography

Learn more about NDM:

NaturalisticDecisionMaking.org

Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making

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Brian Moon 

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Laura Militello

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