PLoS medicine
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The primary goal of the recently launched Malaria Atlas Project is to develop the science of malaria cartography.
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Comment
Impact of extended-duration shifts on medical errors, adverse events, and attentional failures.
A recent randomized controlled trial in critical-care units revealed that the elimination of extended-duration work shifts (> or =24 h) reduces the rates of significant medical errors and polysomnographically recorded attentional failures. This raised the concern that the extended-duration shifts commonly worked by interns may contribute to the risk of medical errors being made, and perhaps to the risk of adverse events more generally. Our current study assessed whether extended-duration shifts worked by interns are associated with significant medical errors, adverse events, and attentional failures in a diverse population of interns across the United States. ⋯ In our survey, extended-duration work shifts were associated with an increased risk of significant medical errors, adverse events, and attentional failures in interns across the United States. These results have important public policy implications for postgraduate medical education.