Crew resource management and aircraft science as a contribution for medical science.

Introduction to Crew Resource Management Crew Resource Management (CRM) is based on the need to better understand factors related to accidents. The introduction of black boxes in the aircrafts pinpointed the main causes of accidents to be uncontrolled procedures, followed by inadequate and untimely situational awareness. These induce distortions in risk analysis with consequences on the decision-making process. In other words, accidents are essentially due to behavioural-related reasons rather than to technical failures. Statistical analysis shows that three in every four accidents occur in an airplane with no technical abnormalities and are instead related to ‘pilot error’ or to factors that could have been prevented. CRM emerged as an important tool for classroom and simulator-based Refresher, Training and Evaluation courses. These behavioural characteristics are related both to aircrew and medical team environment. Disciplined procedures, leadership, teamwork, risk analysis and decision-making, stress, fatigue, workload and lifestyle management versus rest management, communication and critique, conflict management, discipline and accuracy, voluntary safety report culture and individual and organizational error management, routine error acceptance and underlying conditions and complacency are, among many others, some of the human factors that contribute to safety.1