The threat of cybersecurity risks to patient safety is receiving increasing attention. This article describes the development of a new standard to support cyber resiliency in Canada’s healthcare system. The guidance addresses key areas of concern (e.g., organizational risk management, technology considerations, contingency planning), provides suggested roles and responsibilities for an organizational cybersecurity team, and emphasizes the importance of cyber incident response planning.

A simulation study in 2017 showed anesthesia residents performed worse when sleep-deprived after working a night shift. In this quantitative study of more than 5,000 European anesthesiologists, participants reported that working night shifts reduced their quality of life and put their patients at risk. Few reported institutional support (e.g., training, fatigue monitoring) for night shift workers. Importantly, this study reports on perceived risk to patients, not actual patient risk.

Underreporting patient safety events can hinder opportunities for improvement. Building on previous research, this study examined the association between nursing home characteristics and reporting patterns for two measures of nursing home care quality (falls with major injury and pressure ulcers). Findings suggest underreporting of both measures, and researchers identified an association between underreporting and the racial and ethnic composition of the nursing home facility. 

Best practices for treating patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) include prescribing medications to treat OUD (naltrexone, naloxone, or buprenorphine) and limiting prescriptions of high-risk medications (opioid analgesics and benzodiazepines). This study of more than 23,000 patients with an index event related to OUD sought to determine racial and ethnic differences in safe prescribing. White patients were significantly more likely to receive buprenorphine and less likely to receive high-risk medications than Black or Hispanic patients in the 180 days after the index event. This difference persisted over the four-year study period.