Medical Error Is Not The ‘Third Leading’ Cause Of Deaths

The problematic science behind a commonly-quoted statistic

Pictured: Probably actors. Photo: National Cancer Institute / Unsplash

There’s an incredibly common claim splashed around whenever we talk about the mistakes that get made in medicine — that medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States. It is so ubiquitous that you can find it quoted in TV dramas, thrown around in…