WHO calls for more research into patient safety
More research is needed to improve patient safety, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its partners have said at a conference on patient safety research taking place in Porto, Portugal. The conference is supported by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6), and by the Portuguese Ministry of Health. Its goal is to promote dialogue between researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders and to build international collaborative research networks on this important topic. 'Research in patient safety offers all WHO Member States a major innovative resource to assist their hospitals in avoiding harm from medical care and ensure that health care reduces patient suffering and does not contribute to it,' said Sir Liam Donaldson, Chief Medical Officer for England and Chair of the WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety. 'European countries now have the opportunity to translate research findings into tangible actions that can actually save lives.' According to WHO estimates, an average of one in every 10 patients admitted to hospital in Europe suffers some form of preventable harm, and every year unsafe medical practices and care result in disabling injuries and even death for tens of millions of patients around the world. Speaking at the conference, Sir Liam told delegates that research was key to ensuring patient safety. 'When will we be able to say we've discovered the way to make healthcare safer?' he asked. Sir Liam called for the establishment of standards for the collection and measuring of data, as well as detailed analysis of information on the local level. More research was also needed into the causes of medical errors, he said, noting that this was the case even for apparently 'common sense' areas such as hand washing or the effects of doctors working very long shifts. The WHO highlights six areas where research is urgently needed. Top of the list is healthcare associated infections, which affects 5% to 10% of patients in the developed world and as many as a quarter of patients in developing countries. 'With the sharp rise of antimicrobial resistance in the world, it is key that research now focuses on antimicrobial resistance and the spread of multidrug resistant pathogens,' the WHO states Adverse drug events are another area of concern for the WHO, which points out that as many as half of adverse drug reactions are preventable. At least 50% of all adverse events take place in the operating theatre, but there is wide geographical variation in the incidence of surgical and anaesthesia errors. The WHO suggests that more research be carried out to find out why. Also on the WHO's list is the problem of unsafe injection practices. Worldwide, up to 40% of injections are given with syringes and needles which have been re-used without sterilisation, leading to an estimated 1.3 million deaths every year. The use of unsafe blood products is a major problem, particularly in developing countries, where it accounts for between 5% and 15% of HIV infections. Research is needed on the broader aspects of blood safety, including behaviour risk factors among blood donors. Finally, the WHO calls for more action to tackle adverse events involving medical devices. More than a million such events take place annually in the US alone, and the problem is much worse in developing countries, where as much as half of all medical equipment is either in poor repair or entirely unusable. In general, more research is needed into patient safety in developing countries. Currently most data comes from developed countries. 'We need to understand how findings translate to developing countries,' said David Bates of Harvard University and the WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety: 'What is the epidemiology for developing and transitional countries? Which solutions are exportable and which are cost effective? It is quite clear that there is a substantial burden from unsafe care, particularly in developing countries, and much more information is needed.'
Countries
Portugal