News

This November marks the 15-year anniversary of the Institute of Medicine report, “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System.” This groundbreaking analysis of our health system estimated that preventable medical errors cause 98,000 inpatient hospital deaths each year in the United States. Since it was published, hospitals and other care providers have led impressive efforts to better measure, report and prevent harm events. To give just a few examples, hospitals participating in Premier’s QUEST collaborative have been improving in 23 distinct measures of potential harm, preventing an estimated 17,991 potential patient safety events. Similarly, hospitals participating in the federal Partnership for Patients program report thousands of avoided harm events and dramatic savings as a result.

In recent research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Saint Louis University investigators report catching integrase, the part of retroviruses like HIV that is responsible for insertion of the viral DNA into human cell DNA, in the presence of a drug designed to thwart it. This achievement sets the stage to use X-ray crystallography to develop complete images of HIV that include integrase, which in turn will help scientists develop new treatments for the illness.