To the Editor:

FPM is to be congratulated for an outstanding July/August 2002 issue on avoiding errors in family practice. As a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that produced the report To Err Is Human, I found this special issue of FPM a valuable follow-up. The IOM report could only use available data, which was all from hospitals. While important errors occur in primary care offices, no one has studied them systematically. This issue of FPM touches on the obvious choices for reducing errors in a family physician's practice: safter prescribing, lab and X-ray follow-up, and communication. We now have information technology and systems of care that enable us to provide safer care. The changing standards of practice will soon make adopting safer tools and methods of care an imperative. FPM continues to guide the way for family physicians to adapt to a changing practice environment.