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UPDATE
Subject: Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death
7-30-00 Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 18:48:50 -0700
Issue 164:
Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US, Causing 250,000 Deaths Every Year
This information is a followup of the Institute of Medicine report which hit the papers in December of
last year, but the data was hard to reference as it was not in peer-reviewed journal. Now it is published in
JAMA which is the most widely circulated medical periodical in the world. * 12,000 -----unnecessary surgery 8 * 7,000 -----medication errors in hospitals 9 * 20,000 ----other errors in hospitals 10 * 80,000 ----infections in hospitals 10 * 106,000 ---non-error, negative effects of drugs 2 These total to 250,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes!! What does the word iatrogenic mean? This term is defined as induced in a patient by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy. Used especially of a complication of treatment. Dr. Starfield offers several warnings in interpreting these numbers:
* First, most of the data are derived from studies in hospitalized patients.
Another analysis 11 concluded that between 4% and 18% of consecutive patients experience negative effects in outpatient settings,with: * 116 million extra physician visits * 77 million extra prescriptions * 17 million emergency department visits * 8 million hospitalizations * 3 million long-term admissions * 199,000 additional deaths * $77 billion in extra costs The high cost of the health care system is considered to be a deficit, but seems to be tolerated under the assumption that better health results from more expensive care. However, evidence from a few studies indicates that as many as 20% to 30% of patients receive inappropriate care. An estimated 44,000 to 98,000 among them die each year as a result of medical errors.2 This might be tolerated if it resulted in better health, but does it? Of 13 countries in a recent comparison,3,4 the United States ranks an average of 12th (second from the bottom) for 16 available health indicators. More specifically, the ranking of the US on several indicators was: * 13th (last) for low-birth-weight percentages * 13th for neonatal mortality and infant mortality overall 14 * 11th for postneonatal mortality * 13th for years of potential life lost (excluding external causes) * 11th for life expectancy at 1 year for females, 12th for males * 10th for life expectancy at 15 years for females, 12th for males * 10th for life expectancy at 40 years for females, 9th for males * 7th for life expectancy at 65 years for females, 7th for males * 3rd for life expectancy at 80 years for females, 3rd for males * 10th for age-adjusted mortality The poor performance of the US was recently confirmed by a World Health Organization study, which used different data and ranked the United States as 15th of 25 industrialized countries. There is a perception that the American public "behaves badly" by smoking, drinking, and perpetrating violence." However the data does not support this assertion. * The proportion of females who smoke ranges from 14% in Japan to 41% in Denmark; in the United States, it is 24% (fifth best). For males, the range is from 26% in Sweden to 61% in Japan; it is 28% in the United States (third best). * The US ranks fifth best for alcoholic beverage consumption. * The US has relatively low consumption of animal fats (fifth lowest in men aged 55-64 years in 20 industrialized countries) and the third lowest mean cholesterol concentrations among men aged 50 to 70 years among 13 industrialized countries. These estimates of death due to error are lower than those in a recent Institutes of Medicine report, and if the higher estimates are used, the deaths due to iatrogenic causes would range from 230,000 to 284,000. Even at the lower estimate of 225,000 deaths per year, this constitutes the third leading cause of death in the US, following heart disease and cancer. Lack of technology is certainly not a contributing factor to the US's low ranking.
* Among 29 countries, the United States is second only to Japan in the availability of magnetic resonance imaging
units and computed tomography scanners per million population. 17
Journal American Medical Association Vol 284 July 26, 2000 COMMENT: Folks, this is what they call a "Landmark Article". Only several ones like this are published every year. One of the major reasons it is so huge as that it is published in JAMA which is the largest and one of the most respected medical journals in the entire world. I did find it most curious that the best wire service in the world, Reuter's, did not pick up this article. I have no idea why they let it slip by. I would encourage you to bookmark this article and review it several times so you can use the statistics to counter the arguments of your friends and relatives who are so enthralled with the traditional medical paradigm. These statistics prove very clearly that the system is just not working. It is broken and is in desperate need of repair. I was previously fond of saying that drugs are the fourth leading cause of death in this country. However, this article makes it quite clear that the more powerful number is that doctors are the third leading cause of death in this country killing nearly a quarter million people a year. The only more common causes are cancer and heart disease. This statistic is likely to be seriously underestimated as much of the coding only describes the cause of organ failure and does not address iatrogenic causes at all.Author/Article Information Author Affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Md. Corresponding Author and Reprints: Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 624 N Broadway, Room 452, Baltimore, MD 21205-1996 (e-mail: bstarfie@jhsph.edu).
REFERENCES 2. Kohn L, ed, Corrigan J, ed, Donaldson M, ed. To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 1999. 3. Starfield B. Primary Care: Balancing Health Needs, Services, and Technology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1998. 4. World Health Report 2000. Available at: http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/report.htm. Accessed June 28, 2000. 5. Kunst A. Cross-national Comparisons of Socioeconomic Differences in Mortality. Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Erasmus University; 1997. 6. Law M, Wald N. Why heart disease mortality is low in France: the time lag explanation. BMJ. 1999;313:1471-1480. 7. Starfield B. Evaluating the State Children's Health Insurance Program: critical considerations. Annu Rev Public Health. 2000;21:569-585. 8. Leape L.Unnecessasary surgery. Annu Rev Public Health. 1992;13:363-383. 9. Phillips D, Christenfeld N, Glynn L. Increase in US medication-error deaths between 1983 and 1993. Lancet. 1998;351:643-644. 10. Lazarou J, Pomeranz B, Corey P. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients. JAMA. 1998;279:1200-1205. 11. Weingart SN, Wilson RM, Gibberd RW, Harrison B. Epidemiology and medical error. BMJ. 2000;320:774- 777. 12. Wilkinson R. Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality. London, England: Routledge; 1996. 13. Evans R, Roos N. What is right about the Canadian health system? Milbank Q. 1999;77:393-399. 14. Guyer B, Hoyert D, Martin J, Ventura S, MacDorman M, Strobino D. Annual summary of vital statistics1998. Pediatrics. 1999;104:1229-1246. 15. Harrold LR, Field TS, Gurwitz JH. Knowledge, patterns of care, and outcomes of care for generalists and specialists. J Gen Intern Med. 1999;14:499-511. 16. Donahoe MT. Comparing generalist and specialty care: discrepancies, deficiencies, and excesses. Arch Intern Med. 1998;158:1596-1607. 17. Anderson G, Poullier J-P. Health Spending, Access, and Outcomes: Trends in Industrialized Countries. New York, NY: The Commonwealth Fund; 1999. 18. Mold J, Stein H. The cascade effect in the clinical care of patients. N Engl J Med. 1986;314:512-514. 19. Shi L, Starfield B. Income inequality, primary care, and health indicators. J Fam Pract. 1999;48:275-284.
Dr@Mercola.com
UPDATE Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are
third-leading cause of death in U.S.
May 3, 2016Analyzing medical death rate data over an eight-year period, Johns Hopkins patient safety experts have calculated that more than 250,000 deaths per year are due to medical error in the U.S. Their figure, published May 3 in The BMJ, surpasses the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's third leading cause of death—respiratory disease, which kills close to 150,000 people per year. Read rest of story here: https://hub.jhu.edu/2016/05/03/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death/ z MORE Cite : BMJ 2016;353:i2139 Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US | The BMJ http://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139 More Information on Iatrogenic causes
IATROGENY: IATROGENOCIDE?
by Alan R. Yurkohttp://www.vaclib.org/basic/iatrogen.htm OPERATION CURE.ALL -- WHOSE CURE? http://www.vaclib.org/email/cureall.htm Search our site for Iatrogenic Search Two sites devoted to Medical Malpractice Help http://www.medicalmalpracticehelp.com/ http://www.malpracticecenter.com/ More Another Dangerous Drug Approved by FDA www.vaclib.org/email/drugappr.htm Ex-Pharmaceutical Chemist Brazenly Exposes Prescription Drug Industry Lies www.vaclib.org/basic/health/drugdesign.htm Warning Toxic Dyes In Vitamins Foods And More (MSDOC file) vaclib.org/docs/ToxicDyesVitamins.doc DrugDangers/Defective Drugs Information on a range of medications and medical devices that have serious complications. http://www.drugdangers.com/ Providing Consumer Information on Dangerous Drugs and Medication Errors http://www.drugdanger.com/ Nursing Home Abuse Guide - Attorneys Paul + Perkins www.nursinghomeabuseguide.com |