medical error
“When We Do Harm” in Chinese
你好 Nǐ hǎo Beacon Press is excited to announce that When We Do Harm is now available in Chinese! Click here to order. Also available in Chinese: What Patients Say, What Doctors HearWhat Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine More
Communication Errors in Healthcare
Danielle Ofri answers questions about communication errors in healthcare. How can patient ensure they are heard? How should clinicians disclosure medical errors? What can be done about the power imbalance that between doctors and patients? How can we reduce medical error and avoid malpractice suits? More
“When We Do Harm” in Russian
привет Privet! Beacon Press is excited to announce that “When We Do Harm” is now available in Russian! More
“When We Do Harm” in Japanese
こんにちは Kon’nichiwa! Beacon Press is excited to announce that “When We Do Harm” is now available in Japanese! More
Danielle Ofri on NPR’s “Fresh Air”
Danielle Ofri interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air More
Book Excerpt: Florence Nightingale Turns 200
Florence Nightingale’s medical contributions weren’t just revolutionary, they were prescient, almost to an unsettling degree. It could be argued that Florence Nightingale created the concept of patient safety, More
In Conversation with Dr. Damon Tweedy
Danielle Ofri in conversation with Damon Tweedy–a wide-ranging discussion about medical error, patient safety, Covid-19, EMR, and inequalities in the medical system More
Trial and Error
When I look back at the trial-and-error method of my medical training, I’m frankly horrified at what was considered a routine approach to training—placing sharp objects and critical conversations in the hands of medical fetuses and letting them loose on living, breathing patients. The practice of medicine needn’t entail actual practicing on our patients More
The Most Powerful Tool in Medicine
Danielle Ofri speaks at the Mayo Clinic about conversation as the single most powerful tool in medicine. More
Danielle Ofri’s TED Talk on “Deconstructing Perfection”
Shame, guilt, fear—you can’t tally these on a spreadsheet, but they are the biggest elephants in the room when it comes to medical error. Danielle Ofri makes a powerful, against-the-grain case about perfection that could lead to dramatic improvements in care and ultimately could save lives. More
Getting the Diagnosis Wrong
Diagnostic accuracy is fiendishly difficult to measure precisely. A new report suggests that nearly everyone will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetimes. More
Getting the Diagnosis Right
If I had the luxury of an hour with each patient, I would have the time to carefully sort through every diagnostic possibility. But the reality is that I, like most doctors, have five to 10 minutes to push the majority of diagnoses to the bottom of the list, come up with the most likely few at the top. More
Respect and How it Impacts Patient Safety
When we tolerate a culture of disrespect, we aren’t just being insensitive, or obtuse, or lazy, or enabling. We’re in fact violating the first commandment of medicine: Do No Harm. More
Talking about Medical Errors
Doctors and nurses are petrified of making mistakes. They don’t want to kill their patients! But mistakes are inevitable and it’s critical to have a safe place to talk about and address the emotional aspect of medical errors. More
The Dirty Secret About Medical Errors
As physicians we see medicine as a science. We think of ourselves as rational, evidence-based practitioners. But we are far less rational than we tell our patients and ourselves that we are. More
