rs79.vrx.palo-alto.ca.us
No, the medical system is not the third leading cause of death
Premise: no, the medical system is not the third leading cause of death


The real data?

CARLY CASSELLA on 6 AUGUST 2019 wrote an article entitled "Do 500 People in The US Die From Medical Error Every Two Days? Here's The Real Data" and proceeds to not give any data. If medical errors are not the third leading source of death then what it their ranking is a question not answered here on this clickbait site with no less than fifteen pages of ads for the sight impaired t the bottom of the page. This is not a serious work and is written by somebody who is a young generalist in "nature" and with no formal training in medical statistics.


"...reviews of 1000 adults who died in 2009 in 10 acute hospitals in England were undertaken."

A small sample size, cherry picked from English hospitals does not shed much light on the comprehensive nature of the problem in the US.

Preventable deaths due to problems in care in English acute hospitals: a retrospective case record review study
BMJ Qual Saf . 2012 Sep;21(9):737-45. doi: 10.1136/bmjqs-2011-001159.
Helen Hogan, Frances Healey, Graham Neale, Richard Thomson, Charles Vincent, Nick Black


Some guys blog

David Gorski on February 4, 2019 wrote an article entitled "Are medical errors really the third most common cause of death in the U.S.? " in the publication "Science Based Medicine" which you would be forgiven for thinking is a serious medical journal. The fact it's not peer reviewed, asks for donations and is funded by the pharmaceutical industry belies this. As Wikipedia points out it's a blog run by one individual.

Created by: Steven Novella
Date launched: 2008
Type of site: Blog
Owner: New England Skeptical Societyv

This site also defends Monsanto's Roundup despite the WHO determining it as a cancinogen and a Monsanto's own documents showing they knew it caused cancer. This site also pushes the dangerous and ineffective COVID-19 snake-oil: HCL.




2012 Hogan: "...reviews of 1000 adults who died in 2009 in 10 acute hospitals in England were undertaken."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22927487/


gorski: Some guys blog
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/are-medical-errors-really-the-third-most-common-cause-of-death-in-the-u-s-2019-edition/