The discipline of risk management is appropriately named because its aim is to manage risk.

In commercial terms, this usually means saving money, but in medicine, it also covers the altruistic and professional endeavour of avoiding patient harm.

However, is the Medical Board of Australia’s new mandated 50 hours of self-reflection really part of risk management?

Clinical risk management is a relatively new concept that was born out of necessity following the tsunami of medical negligence claims that started in the US in the early 1970s, jumped the Atlantic to the UK and quickly spread around the world.