Ernest Amory Codman

Ernest Amory Codman ( born December 30, 1869 in Boston, Massachusetts, † November 23, 1940 in Ponkapog, Massachusetts ) was an American surgeon and pioneer in the field of Public Health. He was the first American physician who systematically pursued the recovery course of his patients after discharge. He is considered the founder of the so-called outcomes management, which measures the quality of medical care on the basis of long-term treatment outcome for the patient. His interest in improving the quality of medical care led him, moreover, to act as one of the founding members of the American College of Surgeons. In addition, Codman established the first database to capture bone tumors in the United States.

Codman was a vocal proponent of health system reform. The recovery process of his patients, he pursued by " End Result Cards ". These contained the respective diagnosis, treatment was carried out and the result of treatment for each patient. To determine the long-term outcome ( "End Result" ) of its treatment, patients were followed up for at least a year after their release. Codman was of the view that in particular suffer from medical malpractice, the long-term prognosis of patients. He strove throughout his life thereafter to reach a universal, systematic recording of the final treatment results of all patients. He saw it as an opportunity to gain from successes of patient care the necessary experience to treat patients better in the future. He still had the intention to publish this information widely available to facilitate patient choice of doctors and hospitals.

In 1895, Codman received his degree at Harvard Medical School and began a surgical residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital. Later he founded the first morbidity and mortality conferences. These conferences serve as an exchange of doctors about treatment was error to warn colleagues before committing these or similar error. In 1914, he developed a broader plan to evaluate the capabilities of surgeons. However, the MGH when his employer refused to implement his plan, and reacted with the withdrawal of staff privileges. Until that time, Codman was a respected surgeon and had a very successful academic career; among other things, he wrote the first description of chondroblastoma and developed jointly with Harvey Cushing new anesthetic procedures.

Dr. Codman later founded a private hospital in Boston to his reform ideas to measure - implement the medical treatment quality - and subsequent improvement. In the treatment of 337 patients in the years 1911 to 1916, he registered 123 medical malpractice. The experiences of this time, he eventually published in a privately laid book, A Study in Hospital Efficiency.

Codman sacrificed his academic career to fight for the implementation of its reform ideas. He continued to operate in his own hospital, its relations with prestigious Harvard and the corresponding Massachusetts General Hospital, he lost however.