29 Sep Why Cancer Misdiagnosis Happens More Often Than You Think: Causes, Consequences, and Patient Options
Most patients trust their cancer diagnosis. That trust is often warranted — but it probably shouldn't be unconditional, particularly when the initial findings are subtle, ambiguous, or delivered quickly in a busy clinical setting. A 2013 study in BMJ Quality & Safety estimated that roughly 12 million American adults experience a diagnostic error in outpatient care every year. In that same journal, a separate 2013 analysis found that cancer was the leading source of serious harm in diagnostic malpractice claims — not surgical errors, not medication mistakes, but diagnostic failures. According to the National Academy of Medicine's 2015 report Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, most Americans will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime — and cancer sits at the severe end of that spectrum, where errors carry the heaviest consequences and the least margin for delay.
[caption id="attachment_76345" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Photo by Thirdman [/caption]