Improving patient safety in vascular access: a role for individualization and patient preferences

Abstract

Patient safety is central to the practice of medicine. Traditional pathways to improve patient safety have included better education of patients and better training of health care professionals. In this chapter, we make the case for a nontraditional approach to patient safety in the setting of dialysis vascular access which focuses on (a) the development of a patient-centric process of care, (b) individualization of care (personalized medicine), and (c) the use of novel and safer therapies.