Hearst Newspapers has finally discovered that doctors make
mistakes. Check out their latest
collective project, Dead by Mistake, to witness journalism’s most recent
boondoggle. The project’s site
profiles stories of medical error for public review. From Mother bleeds to death after delivery to From a broken leg to a vegetative state, it's all there.
Any patient who suffers the complications of a medical intervention is a tragedy. But how Dead by Mistake is newsworthy isn’t clear. This sensational repository of error
serves to create fear, apprehension and unnecessary suspicion in the
public eye. Perhaps it’s the
charge of kicking an already battered group of professionals. Maybe it’s schadenfreude for a generation that feels
disenfranchised by the medical profession.
But Hearst is late to the party. I might suggest that the gaggle of journalists roped into
this project grab a copy of Atul Gawande’s Complications. The physician as less-than-perfect is
old news. And e-patients knew long
ago what the old media is just figuring out: To err is human and you’ve gotta do your homework.