Iatrogenic Disease
Ask the average person what iatrogenic disease is and rarely will the term be known.
Iatrogenic disease is a health problem induced in a patient by a physician's activity, manner, or therapy, especially as a complication of treatment.
Iatrogenic disease is responsible for 250,000 deaths per year making it the third leading cause of death in the United States. This information comes from the Institute of Medicine report condensed and reported by Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH in the Journal of the American Medical Association (1)
Cause of hospital iatrogenic deaths per year- 12,000 from unnecessary surgery
- 7,000 from medication errors in hospitals
- 20,000 from other errors in hospitals
- 106,000 non-error adverse medication effects
250,000 iatrogenic deaths per year is about equivalent to two 747 jumbo jetliners crashing per day. Just one or two jetliners crashing in a year because of an airline's error would be splashed all over the news, yet hardly anyone knows of the iatrogenic problem. Only cancer and heart disease are more common causes of death. The number one and two causes of death. Cancer and heart disease, can largely be reduced by diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes.
As bad as the quarter million deaths is, it is only part of the problem because the figure is mostly from hospital studies of deaths. The figures do not include negative results in hospitals resulting in disability or pain.
Further, there is no reporting of iatrogenic deaths, disease, and disability from in office treatment and prescriptions. Still adding to the problem is disease and death from over-the-counter non-prescription drugs. This too is not well understood by the general public.
(See NSAIDS)