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This piece explores the role medical scribes play in health care, how to implement and evaluate a scribe program, and recommendations to reduce variations in scribe practice.

Dr. Smith is Chief Faculty Practices Officer for UCSF Health and a family medicine physician. Over the past 3–4 years, the health system has implemented a robust program using medical scribes in the outpatient setting. We spoke with her about her experience implementing this program, including the benefits and some of the potential patient safety ramifications.

This piece explores various practical and philosophical issues that could shape the adoption of machine learning and artificial intelligence systems in medicine.

Dr. Saria is the John C. Malone Assistant Professor of computer science, statistics, and health policy at Johns Hopkins University. Her research focuses on developing next generation diagnostic, surveillance, and treatment planning tools to reduce adverse events and individualize health care for complex diseases. We spoke with her about artificial intelligence in health care.

This piece explores the key role of emergency medical services in providing care to patients at their moment of greatest need, safety hazards in this field, and opportunities for improvement.

Dr. Brice is Professor and Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of North Carolina. She also serves as the Program Director for the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Fellowship and was past-president of the National Association of EMS Physicians. We spoke with her about her experience working in emergency medical systems and safety concerns particular to this field.

Dr. Schulz Moore is the Director of Learning and Teaching at the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law and an Associate with the University of New South Wales School of Public Health and Community Medicine. Her research in health law draws from her unique training in public health, law, and health social sciences. We spoke with her about disclosure and apology in health care as well as the intersection between health and legal systems in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

Dr. McDonald is President of the Center for Open and Honest Communication at the MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety, and Adjunct Professor of Law at Loyola University-Chicago School of Law and the Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy. An internationally recognized patient safety expert, he served as a lead architect for the Communication and Optimal Resolution (CANDOR) toolkit, supported by AHRQ. We spoke with him about lessons learned over the years regarding event reporting and his insights about building and disseminating communication-and-resolution programs.

Dr. Haas is an obstetrician–gynecologist and co-Principal Investigator for Ariadne Labs' work focused on health care system expansion. We spoke with her about the trend of health systems getting larger and more integrated, the risks to patient safety, and ways to mitigate these risks.

This piece spotlights the need for educational and cultural transformation to achieve sustainable progress in patient outcomes and health.

Dr. Skochelak is the Group Vice President for Medical Education at the American Medical Association (AMA). She leads the AMA's Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative, which aims to align physician training with the changing needs of our health care system. We spoke with her about her experience in medical education.

This perspective examines the troubling decline in maternal health outcomes in the United States and summarizes recent national initiatives to improve safety in maternity care.

Dr. Halamka is the International Healthcare Innovation Professor at Harvard Medical School, Chief Information Officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an emergency physician. He is widely known as one of the most thoughtful and provocative experts on the subject of health IT. We spoke with him about the HITECH Act and the consequences—anticipated and otherwise—of the digitization of health care.

Patient engagement is widely acknowledged as a cornerstone of patient safety. Research in 2018 demonstrates that patient engagement, when done correctly, can help health care systems identify safety hazards, regain trust after they occur, and codesign sustainable solutions.

Patient engagement in safety has evolved from obscurity to maturity over the past two decades. This Annual Perspective highlights emerging approaches to engaging patients and caregivers in safety efforts, including novel technological innovations, and summarizes the existing evidence on the efficacy of such approaches.

A considerable body of evidence demonstrates worsened clinical outcomes for patients admitted to the hospital on weekends compared to those admitted on weekdays. This Annual Perspective summarizes innovative studies published in 2017 that helped clarify the magnitude of this effect and identify possible mechanisms by which it occurs.

Dr. Bindman, an expert in health policy in underserved populations, was appointed as director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in May 2016. We spoke with him about his new role at AHRQ.

This piece explores benefits and safety concerns associated with the increased adoption of telemedicine services.

Dr. Tuckson is President of the American Telemedicine Association. We spoke with him about telemedicine and patient safety.