News in brief - June 26, 2000

VA asks NASA to help launcherror reporting system - Health leaders join search for patient safety enhancements - New NEJM editor on deck

VA asks NASA to help launch error reporting system

The Dept. of Veterans Affairs last month signed an agreement for NASA to create a voluntary patient safety reporting system for the VA's 172 medical centers. The aviation reporting system NASA has operated since 1976 long has been cited as a potential model for documenting medical mistakes and near misses. Physicians and others on the front lines who report errors will be assured anonymity and not be subject to penalties.

Health leaders join search for patient safety enhancements

CEOs from some of the most influential organizations across the health sector launched a task force last month to find patient safety solutions. The Healthcare Leadership Council -- which includes the Mayo and Cleveland clinics, the alliances VHA and Premier, and top drug and device manufacturers within its membership -- will attempt to devise reforms focused on the production end of health care to the patients' bedside. Officials said the broad cross section of players represented by the council should help it disseminate solutions more effectively than previous initiatives have.

Waltham, Mass. -- Jeffrey M. Drazen, MD, chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, will take over as editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine July 1.

Dr. Drazen is an international leader in the field of asthma research and has authored or co-authored more than 200 original research articles and more than 100 review articles in medical journals since 1972.

He has served on the editorial boards of eight medical journals. He is the editor of the pulmonary and critical care section of a leading medical textbook and the lead editor of a textbook on asthma.

"Medical journals have a vital role to play in the world," Dr. Drazen said. "They are the interface between the people who create medical knowledge -- the researchers -- and the people who use it -- the clinicians. Our mission must be to take this complex knowledge and communicate it in ways that physicians in practice can use effectively -- both in the print and electronic formats."

Dr. Drazen also promised to protect the integrity of the journal's editorial process.

The previous NEJM editor, Jerome P. Kassirer, MD, was dismissed following a year of disagreement between him and the Massachusetts Medical Society, owner of the journal, over the use of its imprimatur on other society publications.