Announcement from Paul Epner, SIDM CEO

Read a message to the SIDM community from Paul Epner, SIDM CEO.

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Paul Epner, SIDM CEO

#TeachDx Faculty Development Academy

Effective clinical reasoning is fundamental to accurate and timely diagnosis, yet expertise in teaching clinical reasoning is lacking. That is why we are proud to announce the launch of the SIDM #TeachDx Faculty Development Academy. This two-month pilot program will bring together educators and diagnosis education experts to help prepare faculty to better teach about the diagnostic process as well as diagnostic safety and quality.

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Four New Organizations Join National Coalition to Improve Diagnosis

Four leading healthcare organizations, AMGA (American Medical Group Association), END SEPSIS, Health Care Improvement Foundation (HCIF), and Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) have committed to take action to improve diagnostic quality and safety by joining the Coalition to Improve Diagnosis.

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Mapping the Diagnostic Process

Every member of the clinical team, including patients and family, has a role to play in ensuring that diagnoses are accurate, timely and communicated. The Diagnostic Process diagram is a resource developed by the National Academies and offered as an interactive tool by SIDM to help everyone understand and work to improve the diagnostic process.

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Tools for Co-Creating Patient-Centered Comparative Effectiveness Research

Are you interested in conducting diagnostic comparative effectiveness research (CER), but you don’t know where to start? SIDM's resources and tools can help you translate your issue or topic into a CER question and identify opportunities and methods to co-create your research concept with patient research partners.

Access the Toolkit

Journey to Zero Patient Harm

Coalition member Advocate Aurora Health has made patient safety and diagnostic quality a focus of their work. Read more about their diagnostic improvement activities in our newest issue of ACT Update.

Read ACT Update

This Winter, COVID-19 Is Not Your
Only Health Concern

As you read this, COVID-19 may be spiking in your community for the second or third time. Perhaps your hospitals are overwhelmed with patients and have stopped elective surgeries. The news is filled with scary headlines. You have every reason to want to limit your exposure. COVID-19 may be scary but ten more months of avoiding your doctor may be worse.

Read the Dx IQ Column

COVID-19: The Diagnostic Challenge

The December 2020 issue of Diagnosis, SIDM's peer-reviewed journal, is currently available online. This is a special issue on COVID-19: The Diagnostic Challenge, and all of the articles in this issue are free to access.

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Patients Gain Control of Personal Health Information

Recent developments in health care have improved patient’s ability to access and control their records after decades of incremental progress and isolated success stories.

Read the ImproveDx Newsletter

Annual Report - Improving Diagnosis: Now is the Time

SIDM's mission is to eliminate harm from diagnostic error. The COVID-19 pandemic has not diverted us from that mission; it reaffirms its urgency. Learn more about SIDM's projects and initiatives aimed at improving diagnostic quality and safety.

Read the Annual Report

New Resources to Address Diagnostic Error

SIDM has released two new guides for hospitals and health systems in reducing harm from diagnostic errors, leveraging the lived-experience, insights and expertise of Patient Family Advisory Councils (PFACs).

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Diagnosis and Telemedicine – What are the Important Research Questions?

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the usage of telemedicine overnight, establishing it as a mainstay for healthcare delivery and diagnosis. A new project convened by SIDM, funded by PCORI, will bring together a multi-stakeholder group to make recommendations on the research most needed by the field.

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One in 10 Patients with a ‘Big Three’
Disease Misdiagnosed

One in 10 people (9.6%) with symptoms caused by a major vascular event, infection, or cancer will be misdiagnosed, according to a study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CRICO Strategies.

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Coalition Members Respond to COVID-19

Many of our Coalition to Improve Diagnosis members are on the front lines working diligently to test and diagnose patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to provide timely and useful information regarding COVID-19, our members have developed a wide range of resources, including toolkits, live chats, webinars, community groups and more.

Resources

Creating a world where no patients are harmed by diagnostic error.

SIDM catalyzes and leads change to improve diagnosis and eliminate harm from diagnostic error, in partnership with patients, their families, the healthcare community and every interested stakeholder.

Support Our Mission

Patients

Patients and family members have a significant opportunity to contribute to diagnostic accuracy and timeliness by actively participating in the diagnostic process. But often, they don't know the questions to ask, the information to offer, or the steps to take to improve diagnosis.

Resources

Clinical Teams

Every member of the clinical team has a role to play in ensuring that diagnoses are accurate, timely and communicated to the patient. SIDM offers resources for clinical team members to improve cognitive skills and work within their health systems to improve the diagnostic process.

Resources

Medical Educators

Improving diagnosis requires continued investment in medical education, leveraging trainees, practitioners, and educators to address gaps in the system and focus on the teams that contribute to accurate and timely diagnostics. SIDM's resources for medical educators examine clinical reasoning and system factors that underlie diagnostic error, and offer tools and strategies to to bring diagnostic quality and safety into the medical education curriculum.

Resources

Researchers

Whether you're an established researcher or just joining the diagnostic error research community, SIDM offers a variety of resources to help advance research efforts in the field. Explore existing literature, engage with your peers, and join the conversation as we work to foster the growth of the research community.

Resources

Advocacy

Despite the fact that diagnostic error likely accounts for more patient harm than all other medical errors combined, federal investment in research to improve diagnosis amounts to about $7 million per year, or just .02% of the total $35 billion federal health research budget. Learn how you can support efforts to expand funding for research.

Resources

1 in 3

One-third of malpractice cases that result in death or permanent disability stem from an inaccurate or delayed diagnosis, making it the number one cause of serious harms among medical errors.

*Research published in Diagnosis

 

Diagnostic errors affect an estimated 12 million Americans each year, and likely cause more harm to patients than all other medical errors combined.

*Research published in BMJ Quality & Safety

Roughly 40,000‐80,000 deaths in U.S. hospitals each year can be attributed to diagnostic error. It’s about the same number of people who die annually from breast cancer or diabetes.

*From Improving Diagnosis in Health Care

Programs & Initiatives

Explore how we're helping improve the accuracy and timeliness of diagnosis.

DxQI Seeed Grant
Program

The DxQI Seed Grant Program engages healthcare organizations in efforts to identify, develop, and test interventions aimed at improving diagnostic quality. In January 2021, SIDM will issue the second call for proposals.

Seed Grant Program

Collaborating to Improve Diagnosis

The Coalition to Improve Diagnosis is comprised of 60+ healthcare organizations working to find solutions that enhance diagnostic quality and safety, reduce harm and ultimately, ensure better health outcomes for patients.

Coalition to Improve Diagnosis

Diagnosis and Telemedicine

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the usage of telemedicine overnight, establishing it as a mainstay for healthcare delivery and diagnosis. To navigate this new era of “telediagnosis,” SIDM will convene a series of conversations about TeleDx research priorities.

Telediagnosis Project

In the News

Women's hand typing on mobile smartphone, Live Chat Chatting on application Communication Digital Web and social network Concept. Work from home.

Join Us for the Next #TeachDx Twitter Chat

Mark your calendar! Join us on Tuesday, January 19 at 9:00 pm ET for a #TeachDx chat on Faculty Development in Clinical Reasoning with Andrew Olson, MD and Eric Holmboe, MD.

Follow @ImproveDx

Health care professionals

Four New Organizations Join National Coalition to Improve Diagnosis

Four leading healthcare organizations, AMGA (American Medical Group Association), END SEPSIS, Health Care Improvement Foundation (HCIF), and Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) have committed to take action to improve diagnostic quality and safety by joining the Coalition to Improve Diagnosis.

Read More

Millennial employees gathered in boardroom for training, black boss ceo leader leading corporate team during seminar learning at modern office. Internship and leadership coaching and education concept (Millennial employees gathered in boardroom for tr

SIDM Launches Two New Quality and Safety Resources

SIDM has released a new online toolkit to support diagnostic quality and safety researchers in developing patient-centered comparative effectiveness research (CER) and an interactive Diagnostic Process Map to support education about the diagnostic process as conceptualized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (National Academies) in a consensus report, Improving Diagnosis in Health Care.

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act update thumbnail

Journey to Zero Patient Harm

Coalition to Improve Diagnosis member Advocate Aurora Health has made patient safety and diagnostic quality focus of their work. Read more about their diagnostic improvement activities in our newest issue of ACT Update.

Read More

Online Videoconference On Laptop

This Winter, COVID-19 Is Not Your Only Health Concern

As you read this, COVID-19 may be spiking in your community for the second or third time. But when was the last time you saw your doctor? When were you supposed to have a colonoscopy, or a mammogram, or get your cholesterol checked? COVID-19 may be scary but ten more months of avoiding your doctor may be worse.

Read More

diagnosis thumbnail

COVID-19: The Diagnostic Challenge

The December 2020 issue of Diagnosis, SIDM's peer-reviewed journal, is currently available online. This is a special issue on COVID-19: The Diagnostic Challenge, and all of the articles in this issue are free to access.

Read the Issue

DxQI Seed Grant Program

SIDM has established the DxQI Seed Grant Program to engage healthcare organizations in efforts to identify, develop, and test interventions aimed at improving diagnostic quality and reducing harm from diagnostic error.

Learn More

Join the Online Community

Become a part of SIDM's online community and
start conversations, discover resources, and network with your peers.

Join the Community