UW News

April 17, 2003

Gallagher to speak on talking with patients about medical errors

Dr. Thomas H. Gallagher will speak Wednesday, April 23, about research that provides insights into how physicians and other health-care providers can discuss medical errors with their patients. Gallagher is an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Medical History and Ethics at the UW. He was the co-author of a paper that recently attracted national news coverage on this topic when the findings were published in the Feb. 26 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The talk will be noon to 1:30 p.m. in Hogness Auditorium at the Health Sciences Center. Gallagher’s research addresses the ethical and communication aspects of conflicts of interest in the doctor-patient relationship. The lecture is open to all faculty, staff and students.

“Patients want to be informed about harmful medical errors in their care, but such error disclosure appears to be infrequent. This lecture will discuss patients’ and physicians’ attitudes about the disclosure of medical errors, and provide practical strategies for responding to patients who have experienced a harmful medical error,” Gallagher said.

The talk is sponsored by the UWMC Quality Improvement Department and UWMC Patient Safety Committee. For more information about the lecture, call 598-6168 or go to http://depts.washington.edu/qi. A reception will immediately follow the lecture in the lobby of the Health Sciences Center.

For more information about the JAMA paper, see http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/2003archive