No Harm
In the 1980s and 1990s, while attending public health courses at the Free University of Brussels, the question of quality and quality management was at the forefront of attention. It was the beginning of the movement to establish private health centers called "Maison Médicales" in Belgium. My friend Michel Roland, a professor of general medicine at ULB, guided me in taking my first steps in quality assurance. It was during this time, specifically in 1985, during a statistics class taught by Professor Raphaël Lagasse, that I had a small idea that would go on to circulate worldwide under the name of quaternary prevention. Quality assurance can be summed up in the phrase, "Do what you said you were going to do." Quaternary prevention can be summarized as "Do No Harm."