Is Medical Error Really the 3rd Highest Cause of Death?

 

Is healthcare the 3rd most common cause of death in the USA? Was Neil deGrasse Tyson right when he tweeted that hundreds of die every day from medical error? He's hardly the first to say this oft-published 'statistic' but as perhaps the most prominent (and trusted) science communicator in the world, when he said it I wanted to respond. ----------------- More Medlife Crisis: http://www.medlifecrisis.co.uk https://twitter.com/medcrisis https://www.facebook.com/Medlifecrisis https://www.instagram.com/medcrisis ----------------- References: Read these first: A good response in BMJ Quality and Safety: https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/26/5/423 https://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2016/05/09/actually-medical-errors-are-the-leading-cause-of-death/ https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-medical-errors-really-the-third-most-common-cause-of-death-in-the-u-s/ The IoM 1999 piece: https://www.nap.edu/read/9728/chapter/2 The Johns Hopkins BMJ 2016 piece: https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139 Related papers: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2720915?resultClick=3 https://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h3239.long