Advancing methods and measures for patient safety research
The World Alliance for Patient Safety recognizes that to advance the understanding of patients' risks and hazards and to design and implement effective solutions, research must use the best existing methodologies in the most appropriate manner. Furthermore, the Alliance appreciates that research for patient safety is hampered from the scarcity of valid methodologies and limitations of existing ones. The richer experiences derived from other industries has not yet been widely applied in health care. The World Alliance for Patient Safety convened an expert working group to identify and recommend specific directions to the WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety leading to the advancement of research methodologies and measures and to the adoption of the most appropriate ones for specific contexts.
The group is led by Drs. Ross Baker of Toronto University and Bill Runciman of the Australian Patient Safety Foundation and brings together 12 other world experts in patient safety methodologies. Following the deliberations of the first meeting of the working group on 18-19 December in Geneva, the working group will focus on methods for:
- acute care settings;
- community-based care primary care;
- evaluation;
- new methodologies for data poor environments.
The working group will deliver its recommendations by the fall 2007.