Atanasov Atanas G, Yeung Andy Wai Kan, Klager Elisabeth, Eibensteiner Fabian, Schaden Eva, Kletecka-Pulker Maria, Willschke Harald
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety (LBIDHPS), Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Institute of Genetics and Animal Biotechnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Magdalenka, Poland.
Front Public Health. 2020 Oct 16;8:558913. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.558913. eCollection 2020.
Medical errors represent a leading cause of patient morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to quantitatively analyze the existing scientific literature on medical errors in order to gain new insights in this important medical research area. Web of Science database was used to identify relevant publications, and bibliometric analysis was performed to quantitatively analyze the identified articles for prevailing research themes, contributing journals, institutions, countries, authors, and citation performance. In total, 12,415 publications concerning medical errors were identified and quantitatively analyzed. The overall ratio of original research articles to reviews was 8.1:1, and temporal subset analysis revealed that the share of original research articles has been increasing over time. The United States contributed to nearly half (46.4%) of the total publications, and 8 of the top 10 most productive institutions were from the United States, with the remaining 2 located in Canada and the United Kingdom. Prevailing (frequently mentioned) and highly impactful (frequently cited) themes were errors related to drugs/medications, applications related to medicinal information technology, errors related to critical/intensive care units, to children, and mental conditions associated with medical errors (burnout, depression). The high prevalence of medical errors revealed from the existing literature indicates the high importance of future work invested in preventive approaches. Digital health technology applications are perceived to be of great promise to counteract medical errors, and further effort should be focused to study their optimal implementation in all medical areas, with special emphasis on critical areas such as intensive care and pediatric units.
医疗差错是患者发病和死亡的主要原因之一。本研究的目的是对现有的关于医疗差错的科学文献进行定量分析，以便在这一重要的医学研究领域获得新的见解。使用科学网数据库识别相关出版物，并进行文献计量分析，以定量分析已识别文章的主要研究主题、相关期刊、机构、国家、作者和引用表现。总共识别并定量分析了12415篇关于医疗差错的出版物。原创研究文章与综述的总体比例为8.1:1，时间子集分析表明原创研究文章的比例一直在增加。美国贡献了近一半（46.4%）的出版物，前10大最具生产力的机构中有8个来自美国，其余2个位于加拿大和英国。主要（经常被提及）且具有高度影响力（经常被引用）的主题是与药物相关的差错、与医药信息技术相关的应用、与重症监护病房相关的差错、与儿童相关的差错以及与医疗差错相关的精神状况（职业倦怠、抑郁）。现有文献揭示的医疗差错的高发生率表明未来在预防方法方面投入工作的高度重要性。数字健康技术应用被认为在对抗医疗差错方面具有巨大潜力，应进一步努力研究其在所有医疗领域的最佳实施方式，特别强调重症监护和儿科病房等关键领域。
