3 ms·
Possibly a horrible finding, but this line makes me skeptical: > They extrapolated that information and found that 251,454 deaths in the US were caused by medi
by gshulegaard 10y ago
Possibly a horrible finding, but this line makes me skeptical:
> They extrapolated that information and found that 251,454 deaths in the US were caused by medical error that year.
I would be interested to see their methodology, but it sounds tenuous.
- TallGuyShort 10y agoMy first thought was the likelihood of dying from something that was misdiagnosed or not caught in time. That could be considered medical error but is a whole different ballgame from, "they accidentally prescribed cyanide."
- TallGuyShort 10y agoHowever, their point is not about assigning blame, it's about tracking how many deaths could possibly have been prevented by improving the system rather than ignoring everything but diseases that put people in the system. So now that I think about it, it makes just as much sense to track and improve misdiagnosis just as much as mistakes in the pharmacy...
- cfmcdonald 10y agoSurely then it should not be framed as people "killed by medical errors", but rather people who could be saved by improving medicine. The way this is framed in the media is especially absurd, calling it the #3 cause of death after heart disease and cancer. Many of the deaths in question certainly were from heart disease and cancer. They are not disjoint categorizations.