Pharmacotherapeutic friendly fire in the intensive care unit: high stakes seeking high calibre

Increasing numbers of patients are surviving the intensive care unit. Concordant with our shifting focus to minimizing intensive care unit-acquired morbidity, in the present issue of Critical Care Moyen, Camire, and Stelfox describe the importance of quality pharmacotherapy. They describe challenges and potential solutions to this source of iatrogenic injury in our vulnerable patients. Their article reminds us not to understate the importance of medication error, to avoid overstating the benefits of incompletely proven methods to prevent medication error, and to distinguish harmful medication errors from other types of medication error.