Past and present of risk management in healthcare.

The present article describes the history of risk management, how it was born and how it has evolved, with a specific focus on healthcare. Risk management was a strategy initially used primarily in the economic and business sector. We analysed how the continuous increase of medical malpractice lawsuits involving demands for compensation led to the adoption of risk management strategies in healthcare. The various clinical risk-management strategies adopted in different countries and in different historical periods are also described.