Published 14 May 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1775
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1775

Analysis

Global priorities for patient safety research

David W Bates, chief 1,2,3, Itziar Larizgoitia, research lead4, Nittita Prasopa-Plaizier, technical officer4, Ashish K Jha, assistant professor of health policy1,2,3, on behalf of the Research Priority Setting Working Group of the WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety

1 Division of General Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, 1620 Tremont St, Boston, MA, 02115 USA , 2 Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, 3 Harvard Medical School, Boston, 4 WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety, Geneva, Switzerland

Correspondence to: David W Bates dbates@partners.org

With so many unanswered questions on patient safety, it is difficult for researchers to know where to start. David Bates and colleagues describe their attempt to identify the priorities

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In response to the global need to improve patient safety the World Health Organization formed the World Alliance for Patient Safety in 2004.1 The alliance is working to improve awareness and political commitment in 10 areas from hand washing and safe surgery to taxonomy and solutions. One important area is research into patient safety.

Currently most research has been done on hospital care in developed nations, where studies show an adverse event rate of about 10%.2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Although fewer data are available from nations with transitional economies, single institution evaluations suggest comparable or even higher rates of injury from medical care.9 10 11 Unfortunately, there are few data from the developing world. Another problem is that little research has examined primary care, long term care, and mental health, even though the available data suggest that patient safety in these settings may be as great a problem as in secondary care.12 13

New research will . . . [Full text of this article]


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