This direction observation study identified multiple vulnerabilities in the chemotherapy medication compounding process. The authors emphasize the complexity of this entirely manual process and suggest that current practices carry significant risk for patient harm.

Regulatory agencies rely on physician reports of adverse events associated with medical devices in order to identify safety concerns. This qualitative interview study found that most physicians who implant devices do not regularly report adverse events related to particular devices. The authors recommend that postmarketing surveillance of medical devices be redesigned to foster detection of adverse events.

Conflict of interest between health care providers and for-profit industry represents a patient safety concern. This qualitative study examined the relationship between physicians who use implantable devices and the device manufacturer representatives. Although physicians reported being vigilant in their relationship with device representatives and recognized the potential for conflicts of interest, device representatives were often present for implantations.

This study used high-fidelity simulation to evaluate the impact of several interventions on preventing medication administration errors by chemotherapy nurses. Interventions with a basis in human factors engineering principles appeared to be highly effective at reducing errors related to interruptions.

A fatal chemotherapy medication error prompted this thorough examination of ambulatory intravenous chemotherapy processes in Canada. This study uncovered potential preparation errors that were previously unrecognized and could lead to serious patient harms.

… how one hospital radiology department implemented a Web-based reporting system for adverse events. …

This study underscores the importance of heuristic evaluations in the design, selection, and implementation of computerized provider order entry systems.

A user-centered design format for computerized provider order entry order sets proved to be more efficient and usable than standard formats, with no difference in prescribing error rates.

This ethnographic field study demonstrated the opportunities to apply human factors methods in the design of radiation therapy systems.

This study describes the development and implementation of checklists to prevent chemotherapy errors. The authors raise the challenge of using checklists to balance safe completion of mechanistic tasks with those that require abstract clinical problem-solving.