Agree. The IOM study cited in the article is more than a decade out of date and there are many causes of preventable adverse events. In some respects, electronic order entry systems actually confound the allergy and adverse reaction problem because comments about allergies accumulate and are never reviewed. An elderly patient may have mentioned a decade ago that they were "allergic" to some medication because they got a headache after they took it, but once that allergy is on the drug allergy list, no one is going to put themselves on the line and delete it. As a result, the lists of drug allergies tend to accumulate junk over time and may prevent physicians from using the most appropriate medication.

Copyrights are an increasing problem. Patents expire after 20 years. OK, 20 years is a long time in technology, but they do expire. Copyright is the better part of a century and the line between concept and copy is disappearing. In many areas of science, private multinational corporations hold copyright on almost all of the literature. It is literally impossible for a physician to practice medicine or an engineer to work without copying material from copyright texts in the form of medical orders or design procedures.