Preventing Medical Errors

Dr. Vimla Patel, Director of the Academy's Center for Cognitive Studies in Medicine and Public Health, spoke with the APA's Monitor on Psychology about technology and preventing medical errors. 

Medical errors are the third-leading cause of death in the United States—right after heart disease and cancer and more prevalent than respiratory ailments, stroke and Alzheimer's disease—according to a study out this year from The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal). Author Martin Makary, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues estimate that 251,000 Americans die each year from such mistakes.

The findings are far from the final word on the matter—they are based on statistical analyses of past studies and not on counts of actual errors, for example—but they underscore what has become an increasing public concern.

Read the article.