When Systems Flatline—Enhancing Incident Response with Learnings from the Medical Field

In many ways, incident management is the "emergency room" for technical systems. As technology has evolved, it has progressed from auxiliary systems, to essential business systems of record, to critical systems of engagement across multiple industries. As these systems become increasingly critical, SRE's role in incident management and resolution has become vital for any essential technical system. This talk focuses on how various strategies used in the medical field can be applied to incident response. From looking at algorithm guided decisions (and learning a bit about what "code blue" really means) to discussing approaches to triage and stabilization based on the ATLS protocol, to considering the role of response standardization such as surgical checklists in reducing cognitive overhead (especially when PagerDuty goes off at 2 a.m.!), this talk aims to take key learnings from the medical field and apply it in practical ways to incident management and response. This talk is largely conceptual in nature, with takeaways for attendees from a wide variety of backgrounds and technical experience levels.