Special Address on How to Reduce Medical Errors

Duke University Medical Center
Friday, 14 January 2000

The issue of how to reduce medical errors - which a recent federal report said could qualify as the 8th leading cause of death in the United States - will be the topic of a special address Thursday, Jan. 20, by Dr. John Eisenberg, director of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Eisenberg then will team up with a panel of Duke researchers to discuss evidence-based medicine, a form of research that Duke specializes in that provides state-of-the-art clinical information on what clinical practices work in which patients. This is information that can help reduce medical mistakes.

Reporters are invited to attend the event, which will be held starting at noon at the Terrace Level Lecture Hall of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Directions to the institute are available at: http://dcri.mc.duke.edu/who/directions.html, or by calling (919) 684-4148.

Last month, the AHRQ (formerly the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research) was directed by President Clinton to identify the causes of preventable health care errors and to find ways of curtailing such mistakes. Clinton's order was in response to an Institute of Medicine (IOM) report issued in early December that indicated that between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year as a result of medical errors committed in hospitals.

In his talk, Eisenberg will discuss medical errors and the ramifications of the IOM report, focusing particularly on its central finding that the key to reducing medical errors and improving patient safety is to improve the health care system and not to blame individual clinicians. He will describe the ongoing process to respond to the IOM report and what steps could be taken by health care systems to reduce errors.

Following the address, Eisenberg will join Duke researchers in a public roundtable discussion of the value of evidence-based medicine to help reduce medical errors.

For more information, or to contact Duke University Medical Center, see their website at: www.mc.duke.edu