BACKGROUND Diagnostic errors occur more commonly than other kinds of errors, they are more likely to harm patients, and they are more likely to be preventable. Little is known about the presenting complaints, initial (incorrect) diagnoses, and physicians' personal lessons learned related to diagnostic errors. METHODS In 2009 and 2010, we invited a random sample of 200 family physicians, 200 g...

Diagnostic errors are common and can often be traced to physicians’ cognitive biases and failed heuristics (mental shortcuts). A great deal is known about how these faulty thinking processes lead to error, but little is known about how to prevent them. Faulty thinking plagues other high-risk, high-reliability professions, such as airline pilots and nuclear plant operators, but these professions...

BACKGROUND Adverse effects of medical errors have received increasing attention. Diagnostic errors account for a substantial fraction of all medical errors, and strategies for their prevention have been explored. A crucial requirement for that is better understanding of origins of medical errors. Research on medical expertise may contribute to that as far as it explains reasoning processes invo...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this article is to compare the diagnostic accuracy of induced decision trees with that of pruned neural networks and to improve the accuracy and interpretation of breast cancer diagnosis from readings of thin-needle aspirate by identifying cases likely to be misclassified by induced decision rules. METHOD Using an online database consisting of 699 cases of suspected b...

BACKGROUND Therapeutic outcome of Wilson's disease (WD) significantly depends upon its early recognition. However, because of its rarity in community and protean manifestations, the diagnosis and treatment are often delayed. AIM To ascertain diagnostic errors at initial evaluation in these patients. METHODS Analysis of medical records of 307 patients of WD registered over 30 years was done ...