Nudging doctors in intensive care unit reduces deaths, study finds; Physicians for critically ill need ‘copilots’ to remind them of important details

A new study shows the mortality rate in a medical intensive care unit plummeted 50 percent when the attending physician had a checklist — a fairly new concept in medicine — and a trusted person prompting him to address key medical issues on the checklist if they were being overlooked. Simply using a checklist alone did not produce an improvement in mortality.