WHO Patient Safety External Programme Leads
First Global Patient Safety Challenge, Clean Care is Safer Care
Professor Didier Pittet
Didier Pittet, is the Hospital Epidemiologist and Director of the Infection Control Programme at the University of Geneva Hospitals and Clinics, in Geneva, Switzerland.
"'Clean Care is Safer Care': Five words that can make a difference to you, your family, your patient. These five words correspond to each finger of your hand; one finger cannot do much alone but together they form a powerful group. The time for action and not just words has come - I invite you all to share my vision and take full responsibility to make a major improvement in patient safety worldwide."
Second Global Patient Safety Challenge, Safe Surgery Saves Lives
Dr Atul Gawande
Atul Gawande is the Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard University and Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School General and Endocrine Surgeon, Brigham and Women's Hospital.
"Surgical care has been an essential component of public health systems worldwide for a century. The quality and safety of that care has been dismayingly variable in every part of the world. The Safe Surgery Saves Lives campaign aims to change that by raising the standard that people everywhere can expect."
Patients for Patient Safety
Susan Sheridan
Susan Sheridan, is co-founder of Consumers Advancing Patient Safety, a non-profit organization that seeks a safe, compassionate and just health care system through pro-active partnership between consumers and providers of care.
"Patients for Patient Safety believes that the perspective, the wisdom and the will of patients and families from around the world provides THE most powerful contribution to ensuring a truly authentic and sustainable transformation in patient safety."
Research for patient safety
Professor David Bates
David Bates is Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston, USA. He is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he is the Co-Director of the Programme in Clinical Effectiveness.
"The evidence now makes it clear that patient safety is an major issue in countries throughout the developed world. In most of the recent studies that have been done, about 10% of patients suffer an injury as the result of hospitalization. To date, we have much less information about patient safety in the developing world, but the existing data suggest that the problem is at least as big, though the issues differ by country. An early product of this programme will be a number of studies to help define the problem in the developing world. But more broadly, the programme will aim to define the patient safety research agenda in both the developing and developed worlds. In both, evaluation of the impact of interventions will undoubtedly be important."
Reporting and Learning programme
Professor Lucian Leape
Lucian Leape is Adjunct Professor of Health Policy, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health.
"One of the most frustrating aspects of patient safety is the apparent inability of health care systems to learn from their mistakes. Tragic errors recur in new places over and over again. The solution to this problem is to investigate our errors and share lessons learned through a reporting system. The WHO Draft Guidelines for Adverse Event Reporting and Learning Systems provide the conceptual background information and practical advice for those who want to establish or improve a national reporting and learning system."
Solutions to improve patient safety (Joint Commission International)
"The Joint Commission and Joint Commission International are proud to be working with the World Alliance for Patient Safety to create a network of knowledge sharing about patient safety solutions. The Centre intends to work with all parties at interest to make useful and needed patient safety solutions both to those who provide patient care and those who are the recipients of that care. We are deeply committed to the World Alliance’s objectives and believe the Collaborating Centre will play a pivotal role in advancing its objectives."
Mark R. Chassin, M.D.
President, Joint Commission
Karen Timmons
President & CEO, Joint Commission International
Monitoring and Evaluation
Professor Peter Pronovost
Peter Pronovost is the Medical Director of the Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anaesthesiology/Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine.