Clinical Oncology and Error Reduction: A Manual for Clinicians

Clinical Oncology and Error Reduction fills a gap—the lack of a single volume on medical error in the vast field of cancer care—that has existed since a 1999 Institute of Medicine’s 1999 report introduced the term ‘medical error’ as a topic for doctors and patients alike. The volume, edited by Antonella Surbone, M.D., a clinical oncologist and Michael Rowe, Ph.D., a medical sociologist, includes chapters written by experts on the topic including physicians, nurses, patients, and advocates, and covers a wide range of topics essential to an understanding of the unique character, challenges, and needed responses to the risk, incidence, and aftermath of medical error in the diagnosis, treatment, and aftermath of treatment for cancer. Clinical Oncology and Error Reduction will serve as the standard for framing the discussion of error in the field for oncologists, epidemiologists, nurses, healthcare administrators, researchers, and scholars. An indispensable handbook for all clinical oncologists, their staff, nurses, and oncology residents and fellows, this book:

• Contains practical information for immediate clinical application
• Covers topics such as patient safety, error prevention, quality improvement, errors disclosure and apology, and the impact of errors on patients and doctors
• Each chapter contains special "take home" points that highlight issues of particular clinical relevance and application
• Prepared by an expert, multidisciplinary, international team of physicians, nurses, researchers, hospital administrators, bioethicists, patients and patient advocates

About the Authors

Antonella Surbone, MD PhD FACP, is a medical oncologist, Adjunct Professor of Medicine at New York University, where she serves as Ethics Editor of NYU Clinical Correlations. Dr. Surbone is on the Faculty on MD Anderson I*Care Program, and Lecturer in moral philosophy and medical ethics at the Universities of Bologna, Rome, Turin and Verona, Italy, and at various European universities. She has published in the fields of medical oncology and bioethics, with special focus on truth-telling, cultural competence, ethical implications of genetic testing for cancer predisposition, and medical errors.

Michael Rowe, PhD, a medical sociologist, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Rowe conducts research and writes in the areas of medical humanities and bioethics, narrative medicine and medical errors, and community mental health. He is the author of several books including The Book of Jesse: A Story of Youth, Illness, and Medicine; Crossing the Border: Encounters Between Homeless People and Outreach Workers; Transforming mental health care: A practical guide to recovery-oriented practice, and Classics of Community Psychiatry; and Citizenship and Mental Health.