What factors or trends do you feel will most influence medication safety in the next few years?

Without a doubt, growth in the use of safety technologies will have a major impact on decreasing medical errors. For example, safety will improve with….  

increased use of electronic prescribing, the use of bedside scanning of medications and IVs, including insulin, employment of “smart” infusion pumps to decrease the likelihood of accidental overdoses and even closed loop infusion systems that monitor blood glucose and adjust insulin infusion rates.

We are also seeing vast improvements in the culture of safety in healthcare organizations and ambulatory care. This will result in increased communication about healthcare hazards, increased reporting of medical errors and increased ability to learn from others so we can take action to prevent the next error rather than react to it.