Circulation 72,683 • Volume 19, No. 4 • Winter 2004   Issue PDF

Medical Error Prevention Exhibit Earns E.C. Pierce, Jr., MD, Award

2004 E.C. Pierce, Jr., MD, Award Recipient Dr. Shamsolkottabi is pictured with committee members Susan L. Polk, MD, MSEd; R. Scott Jones, MD; Deborah Lawson, and Alan M. Harvey, MD, MBA (left to right), as her award is presented.

The recipient of the 2004 E.C. Pierce, Jr., MD, Award for the Best Scientific Exhibit, at the 2004 ASA meeting, is Susanne Shamsolkottabi, MD, for her exhibit “Medication Error Prevention.”

This exhibit consisted of a wonderful and well researched presentation describing the prevalence of medication errors, summarizing studies reporting these errors, picturing vials and ampules that are commonly involved in errors of types of drugs and concentrations of the same drugs. The presentation concluded with several solutions including system-based approaches to these frequently reported errors. There were also vials and ampules present on the exhibit to illustrate the similarities in packaging of very different drugs as well as different concentrations of the same drug, and to demonstrate how easy it might be to pick up and administer the wrong one. The authors are planning to make a CD of this presentation.