Middle Medicine

Tope three killers in the u.s. as reported in JAMA: 1 700000 2. 553000 3. 250000

(* Note: I made two errors when making my beautiful piechart – I cited 250,000 as the number of iatrogenic deaths, when the actual number is 280,000. I also mistakenly switched two sources for the deaths, ADRs and total injuries. Source below.)

Over a million patients are injured in U.S. hospitals each year, and approximately 280,000 die annually as a result of these injuries. Therefore, the iatrogenic death rate dwarfs the annual automobile accident mortality rate of 45,000 and accounts for more deaths than all other accidents combined.

Bates DW, Cullen DJ, Laird N, Petersen LA, Small SD, Servi D, Laffel G, Sweitzer BJ, SheaBF, Hallisey R, et al. Incidence of adverse drug events and potential adverse drug events. Implications for prevention. ADE Prevention Study Group. JAMA. 1995 Jul 5;274(1):29-34.

When these numbers came out in 1995, Reuters didn’t pick them up. Why? These are shocking numbers.

It’s not the only piece of research that paints this shocking picture either: Gary Null paints a picture far more gruesome – total deaths due to conventional medical interventions and problems picked up in hospitals (such as infections) is 783,936 per year. Then, depending on the numbers for the other two top killers, Heart Disease and Cancer, Conventional medicine takes either the top or second spot.

Let’s look at another pie graph:

Top three killers in the u.s. as reported by G Null

The modern healthcare system is not supposed to do this. This is out of bounds. What now?

References:

Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN, Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Vol. 279. April 15, 1998, pp. 1200-05.

Bates, DW., Drugs and Adverse Drug Reactions: How Worried Should We Be? JAMA, Vol. 279. April 15, 1998, pp. 1216-17.

Leape L, Error in medicine, JAMA 1994;272:1851-7.

Schuster M, McGlynn E, Brook R. How good is the quality of health care in the United States? Milbank Q. 1998;76:517-563.

Starfield B. Evaluating the State Children’s Health Insurance Program: critical considerations. Annu Rev Public Health.

Phillips D, Christenfeld N, Glynn L. Increase in US medication-error deaths between 1983 and 1993. Lancet. 1998;351:643-644.

Leape L. Unnecessary surgery. Annu Rev Public Health. 1992;13:363-383.

Weingart SN, Wilson RM, Gibberd RW, Harrison B. Epidemiology and medical error. BMJ. 2000;320:774-777.

Guyer B, Hoyert D, Martin J, Ventura S, MacDorman M, Strobino D. Annual summary of vital statistics 1998. Pediatrics. 1999;104:1229-1246.

HarHolland E, Degruy F. Drug-Induced Disorders – November 1, 1997 – American Family Physicianrold 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.

World Health Report 2000. Available at: http://www.who.int/whr/2000/en/report.htm. 2000;21:569-585.