Number of deaths for leading causes of death. Heart disease: 614,348. â¢ Cancer: 591,699. â¢ Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 147,101. â¢ Accidents (unintentional injuries): 136,053. â¢ Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 133,103. â¢ Alzheimer's disease: 93,541.
Both risk management and quality management strategies must find ways to account for uncertainty. After all, in the quality management space there is no such thing as an absolutely perfect quality product. Handling risk is implicit in the day-to-day tasks of a successful quality management professional.
Quality Improvement (see also Cummings, Phillips, Tilbrook and Lowe, this issue) is concerned with raising the quality of a product or service. The type of comparison that is made when engaged in quality improvement is between the current standard of a product or service and the standard being aimed for. Quality improvement is concerned with comparing the quality of what is about to be produced with the quality of what has been produced in the past.