WIHI - A Podcast from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement

​Date: May 26, 2016 Featuring:   Don A. Goldmann, MD, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, Institute for Healthcare Improvement David M. Williams, PhD, Executive Director, Institute for Healthcare Improvement Last month, researchers at Johns Hopkins called upon the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) to rethink how it classifies the country’s “leading causes of death.” The authors argue that deadly medical errors, conservatively estimated at over 250,000 annually, should be included in the rankings — which would make medical errors the third leading cause of death in the US, just after heart disease and cancer. It’s a provocative idea AND it raises the question: What difference would this make? Would it accelerate efforts to reduce preventable patient deaths? Would it make the problem more prominent and more intolerable, adding urgency to research and public policy? IHI's Chief Scientific and Medical Officer Don Goldmann joined us on this WIHI to take a look at the current state of