World Patient Safety Day 2025: “Patient Safety from the Start”
Each year on September 17, the World Health Organization (WHO) promotes World Patient Safety Day, a global initiative to reflect on how to improve healthcare standards worldwide.
Each year, a different theme is chosen to focus efforts on a specific challenge or issue in patient safety.
In 2025, the spotlight is on a particularly vulnerable population: newborns and children. Under the theme “Patient Safety from the Start,” the campaign calls for strengthening health systems from the earliest stages of life, ensuring that pediatric care is safe and properly adapted.
Specialized care and family involvement
The WHO has outlined a series of key messages for this edition, focusing on recognizing childhood as a stage that requires specific attention. The campaign emphasizes that children are not simply “small adults,” but individuals with distinct anatomical and emotional needs. Promoting safe pediatric environments involves training specialized teams, adapting healthcare facilities, and ensuring medical procedures are aligned with childhood development.
This focus on clinical specificity is part of a broader transformation toward personalized care. Advances in technology, improved data access, and a deeper understanding of anatomical and physiological diversity now allow for care strategies that recognize the uniqueness of each patient.
Additionally, the campaign highlights the importance of actively involving families and caregivers in the care process, promoting open communication and shared decision-making.
The spine matters in pediatric health too
When discussing patient safety in pediatrics, spinal health is often overlooked. Yet it is a key component of a child’s physical and functional development. Early detection and treatment of conditions like scoliosis, hyperlordosis, or posture-related issues, often influenced by daily habits such as backpack use, prolonged sitting, or classroom ergonomics, can prevent long-term complications.
In more complex clinical contexts, anatomical evaluation of the spine becomes essential for diagnosing and monitoring congenital or neuromuscular disorders. Including spinal care in pediatric safety frameworks encourages a comprehensive approach to child well-being, where structural development is part of the safe care process.
Recommendations for protecting spinal health from childhood
From a preventive and awareness-based perspective, several actions can help support spinal health in children:
Encourage regular physical activity to reduce excessive sedentary behavior, especially during school years.
Review ergonomics at school and home by adjusting chairs, desks, and screens to the child’s height.
Monitor school backpack weight, ensuring it does not exceed 10–15% of the child’s body weight.
Integrate routine posture assessments in schools or pediatric settings.
Promote basic knowledge of spine anatomy and care in both educational and family environments.
Encourage active breaks during study or screen time to avoid staying in the same position for too long.
Patient associations: spaces for support, information, and decision-making
Patient organizations play a fundamental role in promoting safer, more participatory care. In spinal-related conditions, these associations provide informative resources, emotional support, and meeting spaces for families with shared experiences.
They also help connect families with specialists, support continuous education, and can influence public policies related to child health. Having access to these support networks enhances families’ ability to make informed decisions, strengthening the safety of medical processes they are involved in.
An example is the Scoliosis Association of Castilla y León (ADECYL), an organization that focuses part of its work on connecting individuals living with the condition, raising social awareness, and providing guidance on prevention and recovery.
A culture of safety begins with collective commitment
World Patient Safety Day is a reminder that healthcare does not begin in the operating room or with a diagnosis, but much earlier: in how we design care environments and how we educate and accompany our children.
As stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem, we have the responsibility to promote safe practices and support structures that protect the most vulnerable, with both knowledge and empathy.