My journey as a leader in the patient safety movement really started in 1996 when I was asked to chair the American Medical Association's Group Practice Advisory Committee. In conjunction, I was asked to be part of the founding board of the National Patient Safety Foundation. At about the same time, I participated in the first Annenberg Conference ["Examining Errors in Health Care: Developing a Prevention, Education and Research Agenda"]. All these events began to inform my deeper understanding of the issues and need to approach health care differently. Of course, patient safety has always been important, but until the Institute of Medicine's 1999 report To Err Is Human revealed the astounding number of preventable errors in our system, I don't think anyone truly felt an overwhelming sense of urgency.
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