Patient safety curriculum in medical education

Since release of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer System, patient safety has emerged as a global concern in the provision of quality health care. In response to growing recognition of the importance of patient safety, some medical schools in other countries have created and/or implemented patient safety curricula. In Korea, however, patient safety medical curriculum has not been actively discussed by medical educators. The purpose of this article is to introduce patient safety concepts and the global efforts on patient safety medical education. Specifically, this article describes; 1) current concepts in patient safety, 2) global trends of patient safety movement and education, 3) contents, instructional and assessment methods of patient safety education for both undergraduate medical education and graduate medical education, suggested in the previous studies, 4) WHO Patient Safety Guide for Medical Curriculum developed by the Medical Education Team within the World Alliance for Patient Safety and 5) known barriers against patient safety education. Patient safety is a major priority for all healthcare providers. In reality, however, teaching and learning about patient safety in medical curriculum offers a challenge to all medical schools, especially, the health care environment is not favorable to physicians such as Korea. More attention and recognition about patient safety by all health personnel and medical educators is needed. In addition, the national conversation about medical errors and patient safety and how best to incorporate it to the existing curriculum should be discussed.