To Err is Human: Can American Medicine Learn from Past Mistakes?
Open accessAbstract
The history of medicine includes many errors. Some persisted for decades and caused great harm. Several are highlighted in this article, including the mythical thymic diseases: thymic asthma and status thymicolymphaticus. Some medical mistakes, such as the diet-heart hypothesis of Ancel Keys, continue to cause harm. To avoid future errors and their associated harm, I suggest a cultural shift encouraging professional humility and greater questioning of medical dogma. Medical education focused on teaching students this history may help with this cultural shift.
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Poor reasoning and data collection resulted in radiation treatment of children to prevent sudden infant death syndrome in the early 1900s, resulting in more than 10,000 babies dying of thyroid cancer.
“Poor reasoning and data collection resulted in radiation treatment of children to prevent sudden infant death syndrome in the early 1900s, resulting in >10,000 babies dying of thyroid cancer (71).”
From Issues with data and analyses: Errors, underlying themes, and potential solutions (2018) · cites this paper as [71]
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References 51 · Cited by 14
Research works printed but not linked: 6
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- Authors
- Ritterman, J. B.
- Affiliations
- Touro University California (US)
- Corresponding author
- Ritterman, Jeffrey B
- Venue
- The Permanente Journal
- Publisher
- The Permanente Federation
- Published
- 2017-09
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 16-181
- ISSN
- 1552-5767 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-5775
- PMC
- PMC5478585
- OpenAlex
- W2627000577
- Cited by
- 14
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 0.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Permanente Journal (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Touro Scholar (Touro College) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Family Practice › Clinical Reasoning and Diagnostic Skills
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › History of Science and Medicine
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › History of Medicine Studies
- Keywords
- medical errors, history of medicine, diet-heart hypothesis, Ancel Keys, medical education, medical culture
- MeSH terms
- Attitude of Health Personnel, Education, Medical, Humans, United States, Medical Errors
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