Peter Buerhaus (Peter.Buerhaus@vanderbilt.edu) is the Valere Potter Distinguished Professor of Nursing and director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Workforce Studies,Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Nashville, Tennessee. Lucian Leape is an adjunct professor of health policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, in Boston, Massachusetts. He is well known for his path-breaking research and thinking about patient safety, particularly on the need to focus on systems of care to prevent injury to patients, and, more recently on the need for full, open disclosure and apology when things go wrong.