November-December 2003 The title of the Institute of Medicine’s report on medical error, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, is derived from Alexander Pope’s “Essay on Criticism” (1711): “To err is human; to forgive, divine” (l. 525).1 Given how familiar this proverb is in its entirety, it is striking that the IOM report itself contains no reference to forgiveness, divine or otherw...

Clearly a wakeup call for the healthcare industry, the IOM report of 2000 To Err Is Human now appears to have been a sentinel event, at least in the United States (Institute of Medicine 1999). Given that the practice of medicine in the United States is, in many ways, very similar to that in Canada--for example, our physician trainees are educated and evaluated using similar models--it is unfort...