Beyond patient safety Flatland

Beyond Flatland? What does semiotics add to information sciences?

We go back to Shannon’s mathematical concept of information and suggest that, on semiotic considerations, different types of information must be distinguished of which the Shannon type covers the most simple one only. To this end we utilize the isomorphic relation between Peirce’s method to systematically arrange the Boolean relations in his X-frame scheme and the arrangement of semiotical term...

Improving patient safety: moving beyond the "hype" of medical errors.

National patient safety initiatives: Moving beyond what is necessary

Ilan and Donchin have compared Israel and Canada's experiences in setting a national patient safety agenda. We broaden this comparison to include the U.S. experience, and suggest that there are three additional key steps which will be important in any national patient safety agenda, and which Israel in particular should consider. These are 1) using health information technology (HIT) to directl...

Beyond Babel: prospects for a universal patient safety taxonomy.

In the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, God foiled man's attempt to build a tower reaching to the heavens. And the Lord said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do. .. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech'. Genesis 11: 6–7 Those familiar with the ...

Flatland optics: fundamentals.

"Flatland" is the title of a 120-year-old science fiction story. It describes the life of creatures living in a two-dimensional (2D) Flatland. A superior creature living in the three-dimensional (3D) spaceland, as we do, can easily inspect, for example, the inside of a Flatland house, as well as the content of a flat man's stomach without leaving any trace. Furthermore, the 3D person has supern...