Diagnostic errors in clinical practice: prevalence, causes and prevention

Diagnostic errors in clinical practice: prevalence, causes and prevention

A.V. Dreval’¹, O.A. Nechaeva¹, O.A. Dreval’², A.R. Gabrielyan¹ 

¹N.A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health, Moscow

²M.F. Vladimirskiy Moscow Regional Research and Clinical Institute, Moscow 

Currently, medical papers prioritize patient safety, but few studies address diagnostic errors, which significantly contribute to mortality rates. This article focuses on the prevalence, causes, and prevention of diagnostic errors. The four common variants of these errors are untimely diagnosis, underdiagnosis, misdiagnosis, and overdiagnosis. The authors provide a detailed discussion of the causes of diagnostic errors. They analyze the process of clinical disease diagnosis and the thinking of doctors. This paper emphasizes the importance of training physicians in diagnosing diseases, as even the most advanced computerized clinical decision support system is unlikely to completely eliminate diagnostic errors. To improve the diagnostic process, common cognitive errors should be analyzed. The importance of patient interviewing is also discussed. Skillful interviewing of a patient contributes to the correct diagnosis. Attention of the medical community to diagnostic errors and improvement of physician training will improve the quality of medical care for endocrinologic disorders.

Keywords: diagnostic errors, medical errors, diagnosis, electronic medical record, cognitive errors, physician training, patient interviewing.

For citation: Dreval’ A.V., Nechaeva O.A., Dreval’ O.A., Gabrielyan A.R. Diagnostic errors in clinical practice: prevalence, causes and prevention. RMJ. 2024;2:20–24.