Dr. Carol E. Gunn shares a powerful story about her sister and the obstacles they faced due to errors in healthcare. She openly wonders why, when medical errors are the third leading cause of death, there is little outage, transparency or accountability. In her unique position of being both a physician and a family member who has suffered a great loss, she understands the tremendous pressures facing both providers and chronically ill patients.
Medicine is Dr. Gunn’s second career. Prior to medical school, she worked as an environmental health and safety professional … which taught her the skills of accident investigations and root cause analysis. She began medical school later than most, at 37 years of age. She then completed medical school, a primary care residency, and her occupational and environmental medicine fellowship.


Dr Carol Gunn, an internist and occupational medicine physician, thrives on working with individuals and groups advocating for patient and employee safety.
She has been an agent of agent nearly her whole life. After completing her bachelor’s in chemistry and master’s of public health degrees, she was a safety engineer, during her first career. For twelve years, she focused on reducing workplace exposures to harmful chemicals.
With the goal of creating greater impact on others’ health, she then elected to attend medical school. She completed an internal medicine residency and a fellowship in occupational medicine, opening her own independent practice in 2007. She is boarded in internal medicine, occupational and environmental medicine, and industrial hygiene.
Outside of medicine, she lives with her wild Lab, and enjoys the varied activities of the Pacific Northwest. She valiantly attempts to balance her life of family, work, and play - but there never is enough play!

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx