Study: 800k disabled/die from misdiagnoses

[LadyStanley]

795,000 Americans a year die or are permanently disabled after being misdiagnosed

Doctors at Johns Hopkins University are sounding the alarm in a new report on Americans being diagnosed with the wrong conditions.

news.yahoo.com

Just five diseases account for nearly 40% of all deaths and permanent disabilities stemming from incorrect diagnoses, according to the report.

• Stroke
• Sepsis
• Pneumonia
• Blood clots
• Lung cancer

Believed to have misdiagnosis about 11% of the time.

Click to read more...

 

[deleted user]

It's super common in dealing with mental health diagnoses, too.

I have routinely seen doctors and specialists both give diagnoses that they'd agree can't be 100% certain. The homeless community is ripe with mental illness. There's also a shit ton of substance use. How can you diagnose mental health properly without having a baseline? It's frustrating. It's a disservice to those who need help. For their mental health AND substance issues.

#FormerlyHomeless
#FormerlyAddicted

 

[PredsV82]

Here's the take-home passage

The report found reducing diagnostic errors by 50% for stroke, sepsis, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism and lung cancer could cut permanent disabilities and deaths by 150,000 per year.

improved diagnosis in 50%(so just under 400k, ie half of 795k) only helps 150k. So 250k were going to do poorly regardless.

In the case of things like stroke, making the diagnosis sooner really won't change the outcome except in the minority of cases where a clotbuster could terminate the stroke. Most strokes happen and once they have happened it doesn't matter whether you diagnose it right away or not.

None of that is to say we shouldn't try harder to make accurate diagnoses, but we also can't be ordering MRIs on everyone who shows up to the office a little dizzy or with a headache

 

[JMCx4]

... None of that is to say we shouldn't try harder to make accurate diagnoses, but we also can't be ordering MRIs on everyone who shows up to the office a little dizzy or with a headache

Totally agree. If that was the standard diagnostic protocol for such conditions, I would've spent enough group insurance co-pays to buy my own suite of MRI machines over my 43+ years of white collar employment.