Richard Cook, MD

Richard Cook, MD, a faculty member in the University of Chicago Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care from 1994 to 2012, died on August 31, 2022. He was 69. An internationally recognized expert in medical accidents and how to enhance safety in complex systems, he was a colleague, friend and mentor to many members of the department and throughout the Biological Sciences Division and UChicago Medicine.

A clear-thinking scholar and superb communicator who had the courage to dissent from the prevailing opinion, Cook influenced the trajectory of healthcare delivery, patient safety and medical device design through his multifaceted career as a physician, anesthesiologist and software engineer. His research on systems failure informed work to develop new designs for technology and digital tools to support cognitive work by practitioners, instead of burdening it with additional constraints and disruptions at critical moments. He thought actively and creatively about safety and how complex systems fail for the past two decades, and helped change how people think about these issues in aviation, space exploration, healthcare and software systems. He founded Adaptive Capacity Labs to help software companies build resilience in their organizations. For a lengthy synopsis of his life and wide-ranging influence, visit adaptivecapacitylabs. com/blog/2022/09/12/richard-cook-a-life-in-many-acts. Cook is survived by his wife, Karen; three children, Cliff, Kristin and Kara Schwandner, and their spouses; his father, Richard G. Cook; his siblings, Sue and Paul Cook; and six grandchildren. He is remembered as an extraordinary person, both funny and generous with his time, an incomparable doctor, and a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, and valued member of the University community in every sense.

(IRB), she reviewed protocols to ensure that patients who participated in research were informed and protected. She became vice-chair of the board in 2011.

Throughout her nearly 25-year career, she mentored many students, residents and fellows. In 2020, she received the Biological Sciences Division Distinguished Clinician Award, which recognizes highly talented members of the faculty for their clinical excellence.

Koogler served on the advisory board of Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network, a nonprofit that coordinates organ and tissue donation in Illinois and Northwest Indiana. She was an active member of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, ultimately becoming a deacon and then an elder.

She is survived by her mother, retired nurse Linda Rosen Koogler, RN; brother, William Todd (Royanne); nieces, Lindsay Ryan and Madison Bailey; stepnieces, Josephine Emilia Rose Dell and Frances Victoria Brooks Dell; uncles, Melvin E. Rosen, Jr. (Peggie) and Fred P. Rosen, PhD; aunt, Betty Lou Harlow Koogler; several cousins; and a special friend, Mark Schimmelpfennig.

From “The Career, Accomplishments and Impact of Richard I. Cook: A Life in Many Acts,” Adaptive Capacity Labs