In the News

Catch up on the latest articles covering the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) and the work we're doing to eliminate harm from diagnostic error.

Diagnosis errors account for one-third of severe harm malpractice claims

July 11, 2019

Modern Healthcare - About 34% of medical malpractice claims over a 10-year period that resulted in permanent injury or death to a patient were caused by diagnostic errors, according to a new study. The study was funded by the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, a not-for-profit organization focused on convening healthcare stakeholders to prevent diagnostic errors. The research was published in the society's peer-reviewed journal, Diagnosis.

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Doing Harm in American Health Care: The Case of Misdiagnosis

March 9, 2019

Managed Care Magazine - By some counts misdiagnosis leads to up to 80,000 hospital deaths each year—and results in billions in wasted medical spending. Lack of feedback and miscommunication are among the causes. Researchers, advocates, and others are pushing for changes and ‘diagnostic excellence.’

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Working as a Team to Improve Diagnosis

February 26, 2019

Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation - In 2015 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine delivered their seminal report on the current state of diagnostic errors, concluding that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. The report also delivered eight major recommendations on how to potentially improve diagnosis, one of which was to improve the education of all health care providers. Together with four medical schools and their partner health professional schools, the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM)—with support from the Macy Foundation—is taking the first steps towards developing a new curriculum to educate health professionals about how to improve diagnosis.

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Her Cancer Went Undetected, Now This Grandmother Wants to Help Others Get the Right Diagnosis

February 13, 2019

Hudson Star-Observer - [Lisa] Drummond is among the untold number of Americans affected by a medical diagnostic error each year. Exactly how many is difficult to determine. "There isn’t a single health care organization in the country that’s measuring their diagnostic performance," said Dr. Mark Graber, chief medical officer of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine.

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Coalition Tackling Diagnostic Errors Gains Some Traction

January 26, 2019

Modern Healthcare - Diagnostic errors are one of the most common mistakes in medicine, affecting 1 in 20 adults, according to research published in BMJ. They were also the leading cause of malpractice claims, accounting for about 29% of total suits from 1986 to 2010. Despite the prevalence of such errors, more attention has been paid to other types of clinical mistakes, such as central line and other healthcare-acquired infections.

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'Widespread and Dangerous': Facing Medical Uncertainty, Some Doctors Tell Patients It's All in Their Heads

December 21, 2018

CNN - Dr. Mark Graber, president emeritus of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, added, "It's a tendency that physicians have when they can't find a physical cause. "It's bad. It's very bad." Graber, who is also professor emeritus of medicine at the Stony Brook University in New York, said part of the problem is that medical students are taught that physical symptoms sometimes have a psychological basis. That's true, he said, but doctors need to thoroughly test for physical problems before defaulting to a psychiatric diagnosis.

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How to Check Your Medical Records for Dangerous Errors

December 10, 2018

CNN - Susan Sheridan discovered this nearly 20 years ago after her husband, Pat, had surgery to remove a mass in his neck. A hospital pathology report identified synovial cell sarcoma, a type of cancer, but somehow the report didn't reach his neurosurgeon. Instead, the surgeon reassured the couple that the tumor was benign. Six months later, when Pat returned to the hospital in distress, this error of omission was discovered.

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A Neurologist Takes on Medical Misdiagnoses at the Helm of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine — and Elsewhere

December 6, 2018

Neurology Today - In 2011, Dr. Newman-Toker joined the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine as a founding board member; in November, he became the fast-growing organization's second-ever president. It's his newest leadership role in nearly two decades focused on eliminating harm from diagnostic errors.

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Coverys Community Healthcare Foundation Funds 11 Innovative Projects

November 28, 2018

Coverys - In 2018, Coverys Community Healthcare Foundation committed $3 million to fund development of new approaches for faster, more accurate patient diagnoses. The Foundation focused on innovative projects that utilize fresh perspectives, data-driven insights, and new ways of thinking about diagnosis. Close attention was paid to projects with significant potential to help improve outcomes for patients and their families.

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The Problem of Misdiagnosis in Lyme Disease

November 27, 2018

Lymedisease.org - LymeDisease.org is a patient partner with SIDM’s Patients Improving Research in Diagnosis (PAIRED) project. We value the opportunity to work with this group to amplify patient concerns about how misdiagnosis and delays in diagnosis harm patients.

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40+ Healthcare Groups Form Coalition to Improve Accuracy, Speed of Medical Diagnosis

September 13, 2018

Becker's Hospital Review - "Providing an accurate medical diagnosis is complex and involves uncertainty, but it’s obviously essential to effective and timely treatment," said Paul L. Epner, CEO and co-founder of SIDM, in a news release. "Nearly everyone will receive an inaccurate diagnosis at some point in their life and for some, the consequences will be grave. Major improvement is needed to systematically identify how to improve diagnostic quality and reduce harm to patients."

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Geisinger, Intermountain, Others Form Coalition to Address Diagnostic Errors

September 13, 2018

Modern Healthcare - The coalition, called ACT for Better Diagnosis and led by the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, will focus on identifying the main causes of diagnostic errors and working toward solutions. The coalition is the largest effort to focus on the issue to date. The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine formed a similar coalition in 2015 but it only included 14 organizations.

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6 Factors that Enable Diagnostic Errors

September 13, 2018

Health Leaders - A coalition of more than 40 patient and provider advocacy organizations on Thursday unveiled a two-year initiative to identify and address diagnostic errors in hospitals, which by some estimates kill as many as 80,000 people each year and are the leading cause of malpractice lawsuits.

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