Correctly prescribed drugs administered at the proper dose and for the correct indication are the third leading cause of death in the United States.
"we know that our healthcare system itself is the third leading cause of death through prescribed drugs given for the right reason at the right dose for the right patient, not mistakes." (said at 0:37:55)
The speaker overstates the specific contribution of properly prescribed drugs. The landmark meta-analysis on properly prescribed and administered drugs (excluding errors, overdose, and noncompliance) in US hospitals estimated approximately 106,000 fatal adverse drug reactions per year, placing them between the fourth and sixth leading cause of death in the United States (Lazarou et al., 1998). The claim that medical harm is the third leading cause of death comes from analyses examining medical errors broadly—which include administrative, diagnostic, and clinical mistakes—rather than non-error, properly prescribed drug therapy alone.
- partial: Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospecti… (JAMA 1998)
"We estimated that in 1994 overall 2216000 (1721000-2711000) hospitalized patients had serious ADRs and 106000 (76000-137000) had fatal ADRs, making these reactions between the fourth and sixth leading cause of death." (abstract, results, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi)