In a recent telephone survey, 1,000 adults were asked what they believed could be effective in reducing preventable medical errors that resulted in serious harm and the responses were as follows:

• Giving doctors more time to spend with patients.

• Requiring hospitals to develop systems to avoid medical errors.

• Better training of health professionals.

• Using only doctors specially trained in intensive care medicine on intensive care units.

• Requiring hospitals to report all serious medical errors to a state agency.

• Increasing the number of hospital nurses.

• Reducing the work hours of doctors-in-training to avoid fatigue.

• Having doctors and nurses develop a 'genuine care factor' for their patients.

Another aspect of scientific medicine that the public takes for granted is the testing of new drugs. Unlike the class of people that take drugs who are ill and need medication, in general, drugs are tested on individuals who are fairly healthy and not on other medications that can interfere with findings. But when they are declared "safe" and enter the drug prescription books, they are naturally going to be used by people on a variety of other medications and who also have a lot of other health problems.

First, know what ails you and the specific conditions you have. Ask your doctor all about it. Research it on the Internet, for instance. Patients should feel entitled to inquire about their care no matter how sick they are. Second, know about your drugs. Know everything about them. Remember knowledge is power.

Prevention and care, not treatment, is the answer. Drugs, surgery and hospitals are rarely the answer to chronic health problems. Facilitating the body's natural healing capacity that all of us have is the key. Improving the diet, exercise, and lifestyle are basic fundamental principles that we- must all accept. Most of our so called reasoning consists in finding arguments for continuing to believe as we already do, because nothing is so firmly believed as that which is least known.