Diagnostic Errors—The Next Frontier for Patient Safety
- David E. Newman-Toker, MD, PhD;
- Peter J. Pronovost, MD, PhD
- Author Affiliations: Departments of Neurology (Dr Newman-Toker) and Anesthesiology and Critical Care (Dr Pronovost), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
During the past decade, awareness and understanding of medical errors have expanded rapidly, with an energetic patient safety movement promoting safer health care through “systems” solutions. Efforts have focused on translating evidence into practice, mitigating hazards from therapies, and improving culture and communication. Diagnostic errors have received relatively little attention. Although the science of error measurement is underdeveloped, diagnostic errors are an important source of preventable harm.1,2,3 In this Commentary, we offer definitions for diagnostic error and misdiagnosis-related harm, present an overview of the magnitude of diagnostic errors, and give suggestions for how research can mature.
Distinguishing Errors From Harms
In considering diagnostic errors, it is important to distinguish between the error (a process) and the resulting harm (an outcome). Diagnostic error can be defined as a diagnosis that is missed, wrong, or delayed, as detected by some subsequent definitive test or finding.1 However, not all misdiagnoses result …
