Patient Safety: A Worldwide AgendaHow safe are we really when we enter a healthcare facility as patients? Unfortunately, nobody knows. We all believe in technology, perhaps biomedical engineers even more than other people and especially those living in developed countries, we know that there has been more progress recently in diagnostics and therapy of many diseases than in thousands of years before. Still, from time to time we read in professional journals or newspapers about cases of medical errors that significantly influenced or damaged the lives of patients and some patients have even died. This matter has to be approached with a lot of sensitivity because headlines in "yellow press" do not enhance patient safety at all, they just hurt people. So, how do we go about improving patient safety? Finding the way to reduce the number of medical errors is one of the challenges modern society considers a task for professional organisations. The IFMBE, like some others has incorporated the essential topics of patient safety into its regular efforts, by supporting biomedical engineering research of the highest quality and also through a number of bodies within its structure that work on the improvement and follow up of essential medical equipment. Many of these activities are performed in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, especially a number of programs for the African countries. The publication of guidelines for a policy framework as well as the regional strategy for appropriate formulation and the implementation of healthcare technology and its management are some of the Federation's contributions in its collaboration with WHO. The World Health Organisation has recognised patient safety as one of the important issues for the whole world. It is also recognised that implementation of high technology is not a "vaccination" against errors; they may happen at any level and in any health facility in the world. The best way to prevent mistakes is to act in a systematic way, from producing safe equipment to high quality education and training and straight forward procedures that leave no doubt and space for inaccuracy. In this issue of the News, you can find some observations and comments on the World Health Assembly (WHA), held in Geneva last May. Patient safety was on the WHA Agenda and the Federation's delegation at the Assembly made it clear that the IFMBE has the knowledge, experience and the potential to play an important role in development and implementation of the safety projects and programs. Our President, Prof. J. Nagel, is working on a plan of collaboration with the WHO, where the safety matters will be highlighted. In addition, the News will address different aspects of collaboration with WHO in the issues to follow. The next opportunity to discuss patient safety within a large scientific and professional group is the IFMBE's X Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering, MEDICON 2004, to be held mid summer in Ischia, Italy. Naturally, the research aspects of biomedical engineering are mostly represented, but they are the first step in a long way towards achieving safety. In particular, the patient safety issue will be addressed within the Clinical Engineering and Home Care Technology sessions. Several recently published books address patient safety matters. In the November 2003 Issue of the News, you can find the review of G. R. Higson's: "Medical Device Safety", a book that provides orientation to all those who's daily work includes dealing with medical devices. It successfully helps designing device safety, starting from individual testing of a piece of equipment up to the analysis of quality systems. In this issue, you find a review of B. S. Dhillon's: "Human Reliability and Error in Medical System". This book presents a comprehensive overview of the subject and is an outstanding source of reference.
Ratko Magjarevic
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