Have advances in medical technology helped to minimize or increase the number of medical mistakes?
Both. On the one hand, technology is helping to decrease errors, such as through the use of computerized medical records, computerized order entry, and bar coding. Even relatively simple technologies that we don’t think of as “safety” oriented — text paging, portable ultrasound for catheter insertion or drainage of fluid from the abdomen or thorax — are actually saving lives. On the other hand, technology has made medicine much more complex, and therefore created many new errors. MRI scans are spectacular, but we didn’t have to worry about tanks of oxygen being converted into potentially fatal projectiles before we had scanners with powerful magnets. Q: What future trends do you see emerging in the realm of patient safety and medical errors? A: Computerization has clearly reached the tipping point — within a decade, it will be very unusual to find a hospital or large doctors’ office that still relies on pen and paper. We’re finding that IT (information technology) improves safety in ma
