Safety

The importance of defining terms clearly cannot be overstated. However, the term “safety” has not been clearly defined in medical practice, although it is widely bandied about in phrases such as “patient safety,” “safety culture,” “safety standards,” “safety indicators,” “health and safety,” and “drug safety.” Pubmed lists over 50 journals with “safety” in the title, including Drug Safety and Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety; some deal with safety, others with harms. And numerous books, too many to list, include the words “patient safety.”

“Safety” is “exemption …