Reframing the Surgical Morbidity and Mortality Conference: Raising the Standard for All

jpedsurg.org

Morbidity and mortality (M&M) conference is a cornerstone forum in surgical departments, blending review of adverse events and didactic learning to improve patient care and avoid future harm. However, these conferences are traditionally permeated with recall and reluctance bias and lack effective output. As such, this medium warrants a close look and reframing to drive patient safety and quality improvement (QI) [1].

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Article · Dec 2025 · 1 min read

In brief

This article examines how traditional surgical morbidity and mortality conferences can be restructured to overcome recall and reluctance bias while generating actionable quality improvement outcomes. The authors propose reframing M&M conferences as more effective patient safety tools rather than purely retrospective case reviews.

Traditional M&M conferences suffer from recall and reluctance bias, limiting their effectiveness in driving patient safety improvements.
Reframing M&M conferences can transform them from passive review sessions into active quality improvement and patient safety drivers.
Effective M&M conferences require structured output and actionable follow-up, not just case discussion and didactic learning.

Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.

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