Skip Navigation



International Journal for Quality in Health Care Advance Access published online on April 14, 2005
International Journal for Quality in Health Care, doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzi041
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
17/4/363    most recent
mzi041v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Pukk, K.
Right arrow Articles by Aron, D. C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Pukk, K.
Right arrow Articles by Aron, D. C.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

International Journal for Quality in Health Care © The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of International Society for Quality in Health Care; all rights reserved
Accepted March 6, 2005

Article

The DNA damage response and patient safety: engaging our molecular biology-oriented colleagues

Karin Pukk 1 and David C. Aron 2*

1 Medical Management Center, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden,
2 Division of Clinical and Molecular Endocrinology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and VA HSR&D Center for Quality Improvement Research, Louis Stokes Cleveland, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
David C. Aron, E-mail: david.aron{at}med.va.gov


  Abstract

The imperative to improve patient safety is clear. Biomedical scientists, who account for a large proportion of medical school faculty, and clinicians tend to speak different languages. Biological systems are remarkable for their high robustness, flexibility, and efficiency. Biomedical scientists possess a profound understanding of the complex mechanisms that govern organisms. Their insights may inform the design of safer health care systems. We propose a model to assist in bi-directional communication between these disciplines. We use the principles and mechanisms of the DNA damage response to describe the central concepts of safety science and discuss similarities and differences between the systems of DNA repair and organizational approaches to safety in health care. We suggest that such biomedical scientists can and should be engaged in the effort to bring education about patient safety management into the medical school curriculum and to make patient care safer.

Keywords: complexity, DNA repair, medical education, patient safety, systems thinking.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.