Lucian Leape

Lucian L. Leape (November 7, 1930 – June 30, 2025) was an American pediatric surgeon and academic, who became one of the world's foremost experts on preventing medical errors. His most important works on the topic were the results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study, published in 1991 in the New England Journal of Medicine and the article "Error in Medicine," published in JAMA in 1994, which called for the application of systems theory to prevent medical errors. His work drew early anger and criticism, but eventually won over the medical professions.

He attended Mercersburg Academy, where he was a member of the class of 1948.

Leape received an AB from Cornell University in 1952, where he studied chemistry. He also served on an Interfraternity Council committee "to study discrimination as a fraternity problem." He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1959. He rose to the rank of lieutenant.

Pediatric surgeon His postgraduate training took place at Massachusetts General Hospital and Children's Hospital Boston.

Medical safety In 1997, he testified before a subcommittee of the US Senate with his recommendations for improving medical safety.

Leape became a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Personal life and death Leape was married to Martha Kinne Palmer in 1954, whom he met while attending Cornell. They had three sons. Leape died of heart failure in Lexington, Massachusetts on June 30, 2025, at the age of 94. His wife had predeceased him earlier in the year.

Selected publications