Ernest Amory Codman

Who was Ernest Amory Codman?

Ernest Amory Codman, M.D., was a pioneering Boston surgeon who made contributions to anaesthesiology, radiology, duodenal ulcer surgery, orthopaedic oncology, shoulder surgery, and the study of medical outcomes.

Codman was born in Boston Massachusetts. He attended the Fay School in Southborough, and prepped at St. Mark's School, matriculating at Harvard College.

He was an advocate of hospital reform and is the acknowledged founder of what today is known as outcomes management in patient care. Codman was the first American doctor to follow the progress of patients through their recoveries in a systematic manner. He kept track of his patients via "End Result Cards" which contained basic demographic data on every patient treated, along with the diagnosis, the treatment he rendered, and the outcome of each case. Each patient was followed up on for at least one year to observe long-term outcomes. It was his lifelong pursuit to establish an "end results system" to track the outcomes of patient treatments as an opportunity to identify clinical misadventures that serve as the foundation for improving the care of future patients.