One of twenty Americans each year are incorrectly diagnosed

A new study found that annually approximately 12 million people in the United States are misdiagnosed diseases ambulatory – equivalent to 1 patient in every 20 adults. According to information published August 14, 2014 scientists, these results represent a "significant threat to public health".

A team of specialists led by Dr. Hardeep Singh of the Veterans Center, and Medical College "Baylor" in Houston, Texas, notes that the determination of the frequency of diagnostic errors in outpatient clinics is the incentive mechanism for health care.

In an attempt to achieve such evaluation, Dr. Singh and colleagues revised the data of three studies that included hundreds of medical records of patients who visited an outpatient clinic.

The team confirmed the number of diagnostic errors in all three studies. Scientists have noted that the criteria for diagnostic errors were comparable in all studies.

The results of the comparison of the number of medical errors, recently published in BMJ, showed that the annual norm of outpatient diagnostic errors made up 5.08 percent, equivalent to 12 million adults, or every 1 out of 20.

 

Source: globalscience.ru