The pandemic also highlighted the long-standing issue of iatrogenic (doctor-caused) illnesses or injuries arising in the course of medical care. By some metrics, this problem is a leading killer in our society, resulting in as many as fifty thousand to a hundred thousand deaths every year, in and out of hospitals. Medical errors run the gamut from surgical mistakes (leaving a sponge in somebody’s abdomen) to medication mistakes (prescribing Lasix instead of Losec, for instance—one is a diuretic and the other reduces stomach acid). People associate medical error with a surgeon accidentally
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