EP 90: Dan Dworkis MD PhD on Excellence in Crisis

Dr. Derek Donegan, orthopedic trauma surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania, on what it takes to perform when the patient, the team, and the problem are all unpredictable.

Organizational network analysis reveals how work really gets done: hidden influence, brokers, bottlenecks, leadership feedback loops, and the informal structures that shape performance under pressure.

Sarah Gebauer is a physician and founder of Validara Health who works at the intersection of clinical AI evaluation and governance. We cover what it actually means to evaluate an AI product for clinical safety, how physicians can draw on skills they already have to work effectively with these systems, and where those analogies break down. The core tension running through the conversation is that we are layering systems with unknown failure modes on top of systems with known ones, and hoping the combination is better, but that's a hypothesis, not a guarantee.

In this episode of The Emergency Mind Podcast, I’m joined by Elvina Hewitt and Mena Ramos for a wide-ranging conversation about emergency medicine, healthcare innovation, AI, entrepreneurship, and what it means to build better systems from inside the reality of clinical work.

Psychologist, performance coach, and yoga teacher Diane Malaspina shares a strengths-based approach to stress, resilience, and optimal performance for high-pressure professions.