Although “First do no harm” is the fundamental and one of the  most important rules of any health practice, as days pass by, more studies show the actual extent that the medical errors take effect.

For this particular reason, Turkish Patient Safety Association which is established with the participation of related stakeholders in April 2006 with a view to place the Patients’ Safety concerns right in the core of Turkey’s agenda and initiated and carries out related awareness raising and training efforts in Turkey, has set  “First do no harm”  concept as the primary theme to be raised in the 1st International Patient Safety Congress, which is scheduled to be held in between 26th and 31st of March 2007. Together with the support of Joint Commission International (JCI) and World Health Organization the Congress has proved to be an opportunity and a venue for exchanging knowledge and experience for more than 500 local and international participants.

‘Patient Safety’ is a difficult area of particular significance that is not limited solely to a certain professional group and institution of health, but can be solved only by actors and stakeholders of the health system in a joint action organized with a common approach, where human behaviors and cultural values also play a major role and which has no solution chances other than sharing information in a common and jointly recognized language. The idea that capability of justifiable / proof based service offering for assuring patient safety is among the basic indicators of quality in healthcare services and has spread fast around the entire globe. It is already among the core objectives of an enormous number of organizations including charity organizations, associations, institutes and etc. which are practicing in various countries. However, it is not uncommon that these efforts tend to accumulate denser in some certain areas of activity, even gaining sizes as big as comprehensive multi-disciplinary knowledge bases and repositories in one area, while retaining a poor level in the others. Oftentimes, various organizations may allocate sources for the same and identical set of information. Taking all these facts fairly into account, our Association has set the main theme of the 2^nd International Patient Safety Congress, scheduled to be held between 25-29  March 2008, as “Global Knowledge Sharing for Patient Safety”.

Our sole objective with this congress is to achieve this exchange of knowledge and experience on a global scale at the highest extent practically possible. This platform is intended to serve as a venue for gathering the organizations and people possessing highest level of knowledge with those whom are not able to provide access to , due to lack of or limited sources in order to enable both parties effectively to take advantage of this opportunity for sharing and exchange of information. The official language of the Congress is English and simultaneous translation on Russian and Turkish will be made available during the Congress.

Registration form you may download from here http://www.patientsafetycongress.net/?pg=477  

We sincerely hope that it shall provide a highly efficient and fruitful environment for information and knowledge sharing for all our participants and speakers.

Sincerely yours,