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A comment on Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are 3rd-leading cause of death in US.

Re:Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are 3rd-leadi... by slg on Friday March 02, 2018 @11:28AM (#16502900)
Any statistic can lie, but this one is even more susceptible considering that vague definition of what constitutes a "medical error". I remember looking at this study when it was first published (there should be a 2016 in the title by the way) and it basically attributed any action by a doctor that resulted in a negative outcome as a medical error. For example, that could include a doctor prescribing a treatment that is successful for 99.9999% of patients, but if it fails for that one patient it would be an error.
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Re:Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are 3rd-leadi... by manjushri on Friday March 02, 2018 @11:32AM (#16502938)
That seems like a reasonable definition, not a lie.

>could include a doctor prescribing a treatment that is successful for 99.9999% of patients

Sure it could, but that is an edge case that would account for a negligible number of deaths in relation to the sum total.

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Re:Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are 3rd-leadi... by slg on Friday March 02, 2018 @12:03PM (#16503378)
You are focusing on the admittedly extreme outlier example I used. Let me try a different example. The 5 year survival rate for lung cancer is roughly 50%. The other 50% were likely given some treatment that was hoped to be effective but still resulted in death. Are those failures to successfully treat the patient a medical error?
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Re:Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are 3rd-leadi... by throwaway1909 on Friday March 02, 2018 @11:58AM (#16503305)
Meds aren't always so black and white. A treatment or drug may be successful in 70% of patients (or even 10%), and still properly prescribed when the potential harms outweigh the benefit.
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Re:Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are 3rd-leadi... by manjushri on Friday March 02, 2018 @12:03PM (#16503376)
Indeed. However, there are massive monetary incentives and influences to perscribe treatment even though the risk/benefit ratio may not be in the patient's favor.
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Re:Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are 3rd-leadi... by throwaway1909 on Friday March 02, 2018 @12:12PM (#16503478)
Whoa there. Pretty impressive accusation as you're describing malpractice. Why don't you cite a source or two?
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Re:Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are 3rd-leadi... by manjushri on Friday March 02, 2018 @04:46PM (#16506050)
Doctor who ordered unnecessary heart surgery and risky tests jailed for 20 years

Dr Harry Persaud of Ohio made more than $7m from health insurance fraud while abusing patients’ ‘sacred trust’, says FBI

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/22/doctor-who-o...

Moreland Hills doctors performed unnecessary tests, illegally prescribed drugs, feds say

http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2018/01/mor...

The $395 billion US pharmaceutical industry spent $5.2 billion on advertising prescription drugs directly to consumers in 2015

Every $1.00 spent advertising prescription drugs is estimated to increase their retail sales by $4.20

https://prescriptiondrugs.procon.org

Doctors received more than $46 million from drug companies marketing opioids

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/08/0...

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