The inspiring keynotes by Raj Ratwani (Medstar Health, Washington DC, USA), Laura Zwaan (Erasmus MC Rotterdam, NL) and David Schwappach (ISPM, Bern) on electronic medical records and AI highlighted the current research and experience on how digital technologies impact patient safety. These insights need to be embraced and further expanded to harness the potential of digital transformation for patient safety. Known issues will not simply disappear on their own.
The subsequent discussion centered around strategies for achieving improvement in both the short and long term: regulation, competition, transparency, bottom-up or top-down approaches? Our essence:
- There is general agreement that we need ongoing dialogue.
- Dialogue alone, however, will not suffice; we also need real action. Time is of the essence: “bad IT” harms patients and wastes valuable resources, particularly the energy and motivation of our healthcare staff.
- Regulation through minimum standards for EMRs in terms of usability and patient safety could be a meaningful way to set clear expectations towards industry. However, it requires time and could lead to bureaucratic micro-regulation.
- Greater transparency is an essential step to generate momentum, create incentives and opportunities to learn from each other, and foster improvements.
