Things I learn during residency

Dr. Makary, author of Medical error-the third leading cause of death in the US, should be ashamed of publishing data that is clearly incorrect and attributes unavoidable patient-related morbidities to “medical error”. There is a huge difference in a patient death secondary to an incorrectly administered drug and a patient death secondary to a heart attack after stenting because of poor heart function.

Data from the CDC shows that there are approximately 2.5 million deaths a year, and the article calculates that 250,000 deaths in that same time are related to medical errors. I would like to see the data that proves that 10% of deaths are caused by medical error. I am shocked that this article was approved by the editors of the BMJ, and maybe the medical error was on their part in allowing this paper to see the light of day.