Envisioning Patient Safety in the Year 2025: Eight Perspectives

Envisioning the future of patient safety is more than an academic exercise. Appealing visions can help channel human energies, set new directions, and open the doors to alternative approaches. Eight thought leaders participated in an exercise of envisioning patient safety in the year 2025. Two tasks were assigned for preparing a brief response. The first task simply called for the invited thought leaders to envision patient safety in the year 2025 as they would like it to be from the vantage point of their particular area of expertise. The areas of expertise included health care system change, design of the physical environment, health information technology, patientcenteredness, device safety, simulation, transitions of care, and complex systems. For the second task, they were asked to describe what changes need to “fall into place” between now and then in order for their visions to be realized. Concluding observations are provided.