Footnotes

• Twitter @JKAronson, @Richards_G_C

• Contributors GCR created the Preventable Deaths Database; all three authors searched it for relevant cases. JA analysed the data, wrote the first draft and edited it following comments from the other authors. All authors read and approved the final version.

• Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

• Competing interests JKA has published articles and edited textbooks on adverse drug reactions and interactions, for which he has sometimes received royalties, and has often given medicolegal advice, including appearances as an expert witness in coroners’ courts, for which he has received fees. He is an associate editor of BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine and was a coauthor of the editorial that introduced the Coroners’ Concerns to Prevent Harms Series in the journal. GCR was financially supported by the National Institute for Health Research School for Primary Care Research, the Naji Foundation, and the Rotary Foundation to study for a doctor of philosophy (2017-2020), but no longer has any financial conflicts of interest; she is an associate editor of BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, was lead author of the editorial that introduced the Coroners’ Concerns to Prevent Harms Series, and is developing (https://preventabledeathstracker.net/) a programme of research on preventable deaths.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.