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Perspectives

Our Perspectives on Safety section features expert viewpoints on current themes in patient safety, including interviews and written essays published monthly. Annual Perspectives highlight vital and emerging patient safety topics.

Latest Perspectives

Emergence of Application-based Healthcare

This piece focuses on the emergence and use of digital applications (apps), app-based products and devices for healthcare, and the implications for patient safety.

Francoise A. Marvel
In conversation with Francoise Marvel, MD

Francoise A. Marvel, MD, is an assistant professor of medicine within the Division of Cardiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, codirector of the Johns Hopkins Digital Health Innovation Lab, and the chief executive officer (CEO) and cofounder of Corrie... Read More

Patient Safety in the Ambulatory Care Setting

The focus on patient safety in the ambulatory setting was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and appropriately shifting priorities to responding to the pandemic. This piece explores some of the core themes of patient safety in the ambulatory setting,... Read More

Remle P. Crowe
In Conversation With... Remle P. Crowe, PhD

Remle Crowe, PhD, NREMT, is the Director of Clinical and Operational Research at ESO. In her professional role, she provides strategic direction for the research mission of the organization, including oversight of a warehouse research data set of de... Read More

In Conversation With... Michael L. Millenson

Michael L. Millenson is the President of Health Quality Advisors LLC, author of the critically acclaimed book Demanding Medical Excellence: Doctors and Accountability in the Information Age, and an adjunct associate professor of medicine at... Read More

All Perspectives (336)
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1 - 20 of 21 Results
Muhammad Walji
In Conversation With... Elsabeth Kalenderian, DDS, MPH, PhD and Muhammad F. Walji, PhD
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    • Elsabeth Kalenderian, DDS, MPH, PhD is a professor at UCSF. Muhammad F. Walji, PhD is the Associate Dean for Technology Services and Informatics and professor for Diagnostic and Biomedical Sciences at the UT Health Science Center at Houston, School of Dentistry. We spoke to them about the identification and prevention of adverse events in dentistry.   

    In Conversation With… Karl Bilimoria, MD, MS
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    • Dr. Bilimoria is the Director of the Surgical Outcomes and Quality Improvement Center of Northwestern University, which focuses on national, regional, and local quality improvement research and practical initiatives. He is also the Director of the Illinois Surgical Quality Improvement Collaborative and a Faculty Scholar at the American College of Surgeons. In the second part of a two-part interview (the earlier one concerned residency duty hours), we spoke with him about quality and safety in surgery.
    In Conversation With… Rosemary Gibson, MSc
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    • Ms. Gibson is Senior Advisor to The Hastings Center, an editor for JAMA Internal Medicine, and co-author of Wall of Silence and The Treatment Trap. We spoke with her about overuse of medical care and its effect on patient safety.
    Lesson from the VA's Team Training Program
    Julia Neily, RN, MS, MPH; Peter D. Mills, PhD, MS; Lisa M. Mazzia, MD; and Douglas E. Paull,MD |
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    • This piece describes how the Medical Team Training program has improved safety, staff morale, and patient outcomes in the VA.
    In Conversation with…Thomas J. Nasca, MD
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    • Thomas J. Nasca, MD, is the executive director and chief executive officer of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Prior to joining the ACGME in 2007, Dr. Nasca, a nephrologist, was dean of Jefferson Medical College and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs of Thomas Jefferson University. We asked him to speak with us about the role of the ACGME in patient safety.
    In Conversation with...Dean Schillinger, MD
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    • Dean Schillinger, MD, is a Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco, Director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, and Chief of the California Diabetes Prevention and Control Program. His role as a practicing clinician at a safety net hospital (San Francisco General Hospital) has put him in a unique position to pursue influential and relevant research related to health literacy and improving care for vulnerable populations.
    The Role of Health Literacy in Patient Safety
    Michael S. Wolf, PhD, MPH; Stacy Cooper Bailey, MPH |
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    • Clear health communication is increasingly recognized as essential for promoting patient safety. Yet according to a recent Joint Commission report, What Did the Doctor Say? Improving Health Literacy to Protect Patient Safety, communication problems among health care providers, patients, and families are common and a leading root cause of adverse outcomes. Addressing health literacy—the capacity of individuals to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions—has become a primary objective for many health systems in order to protect patients from harm.
    Making Just Culture a Reality: One Organization's Approach
    Alison H. Page, MS, MHA |
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    • We've all been there...something goes wrong, a patient is harmed, and we, as medical directors, managers, and administrators, are forced to judge the behavioral choices of another human being. Most of the time, we conduct this complex leadership function guided by little more than vague policies, personal beliefs, and intuition. Frequently, we are frustrated by the fact that many other providers have made the same mistake or behavioral choice, with no adverse outcome to the patient, and the behavior was overlooked. Quite understandably, the staff is frustrated by what appears to be inconsistent, irrational decision-making by leadership. The "just culture" concept teaches us to shift our attention from retrospective judgment of others, focused on the severity of the outcome, to real-time evaluation of behavioral choices in a rational and organized manner.
    In Conversation with...Atul Gawande, MD, MA, MPH
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    • Atul Gawande, MD, MA, MPH, Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, is an accomplished surgeon and writer and is the recipient of a 2006 MacArthur Fellowship. He is an active clinician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Gawande has written two acclaimed and best-selling books: Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science and Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance. A staff writer for the New Yorker, he also recently completed a stint as a guest columnist for the New York Times. Dr. Gawande is leading the World Health Organization's Second Global Patient Safety Challenge: "Safe Surgery Saves Lives." We asked him to speak with us about professionalism, training, patient safety, and the writing process.
    The Role of the Patient in Improving Patient Safety
    Rosemary Gibson, MSc |
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    • Patients have three roles in improving patient safety: helping to ensure their own safety, working with health care organizations to improve safety at the organization and unit level, and advocating as citizens for public reporting and accountability of hospital and health system performance. The following case illustrates how patients can help ensure their own safety.
    Patient Safety in the Physician Office Setting
    Nancy C. Elder, MD, MSPH |
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    • Dr. Jones was sure he had increased Mr. H's cholesterol-lowering medication to 80 mg 6 months ago, but, at his visit today, his pill bottle still says 40 mg. In reviewing Ms. B's chart in preparation for performing a well-woman examination, Dr. Smith find...
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