How failure-based language fails our patients

All too common in medical discourse, phrases like ‘failed treatment’ or ‘failed therapy’ describe situations where a medication or intervention did not achieve the desired outcome. Using these terms risks making patients feel it is their fault for not achieving better outcomes largely determined by complex biological and social factors most often beyond their control. These terms undermine the therapeutic relationship and negatively impact mental and physical health alike. We must make a conscious effort to remove failure-based language from the collective medical lexicon by modelling alternative phrasing and advocating for corresponding policy change.