Errors and Biases in Modern Healthcare: Public Health, Medico-legal and Risk Management Aspects

Preventing errors and governing their consequences is one of the most important challenges in modern healthcare. The trade-off between organizational-targeted and human-targeted interventions to prevent these errors is complicated by the role that may be played by individual (e.g., cognitive) failures and by the evidence that error in medicine is often not a random event, tending to recur in some professionals. Moreover, to err is no more always human, since the implementation of artificial intelligence products that introduce new challenges (e.g. concerning communication of risks and patient engagement) and new kinds of "errors" (biases) that have different causes and thus require different solutions.

Our Research topic (special issue) is aimed to collect sound evidence regarding the root causes of errors and biases in modern healthcare and the impact of potential adaptive responses or interventions in terms of incidence of errors and their individual/psychological/occupational/organizational/ethical/legal/economical consequences.

In detail, the main themes we would like contributors to address are:

1) how the risk of errors and/or biases impacts on modern healthcare and on individual/legal/ethical/psychological/occupational/organizational/economical factors?

2) how the risk of errors and/or biases is being addressed/can be addressed in a cost-effective fashion?

3) how the risk of errors and/or biases is reshaping the relationship and the communication between healthcare professionals and patients?

4) what are the root causes of errors and/or biases in modern healthcare?

5) Any other theme concerning errors and/or biases in a relevant health-related context could be evaluated.

All types of manuscripts can be considered, but research papers and systematic/scoping reviews are highly recommended.