It’s tempting to think that medical professionals like doctors and nurses have access to nearly perfect information, with which they can provide nearly perfect care. Most of us have had a long list of pleasant and positive interactions with medical professionals, having diseases cured, conditions mitigated, and having our lives improved for the better.

As such, it’s sometimes surprising to learn that medical diagnostic errors are incredibly common. Every year, millions of people suffer as a result of being misdiagnosed, or having a condition that goes undiagnosed.

Why is it that medical diagnostic errors are so common?

What Are Diagnostic Errors?

Diagnostic errors are essentially mistakes made in the realm of medical diagnosis. They come in many varieties; for example, a doctor can diagnose you with the wrong condition, fail to diagnose a condition that exists, or diagnose you with the wrong variant of a condition.

In many cases, these errors are reasonable, as they could have been made by any medical professional with equal skill and access to the same information. In medicine, knowledge is rarely perfect, and even small gaps can lead to serious consequences.

But in other cases, these errors are unreasonable, occurring as a result of ignorance, dismissiveness, or a lack of due diligence. With the help of a medical malpractice attorney, patients who suffer from unreasonable errors can seek compensation from the individuals and institutions responsible for them.

Why Medical Diagnostic Errors Are So Common

Why are medical diagnostic errors so common?

These are just some of the explanations:

·       Types of errors. For starters, there are many different types of diagnostic errors that can occur. There can be false positives, mistaken symptoms, lack of diagnosis, diagnosis of a wrong condition, and much more. Because there are so many incidents that can technically qualify as a diagnostic error, the sheer number of errors is increased.

·       Differential diagnosis. Many diseases and conditions share similar sets of symptoms, often leading to differential diagnoses. If you have a sore throat and a runny nose, it could be any number of contagious diseases. If you have sharp stomach pains and little else to go on, it could literally be a sign of thousands of different conditions. A good medical practitioner will ask lots of questions and run lots of tests to narrow down the list, but there will almost always be competing diagnoses to contend with.

·       Incomplete information. Most medical professionals have to work with incomplete information. The patient may not be able to recognize all the symptoms they’re dealing with, or they may withhold certain pieces of information on purpose. This makes it incredibly difficult to come up with an accurate diagnosis.

·       False information. It’s even more difficult if patients provide false information, such as failing to disclose drug use or avoiding discussions of symptoms that are embarrassing to them.

·       Complicating factors. Complicating factors can make diagnosis even more challenging. If a patient is already dealing with multiple other conditions and is taking other prescription medications, most medical professionals have a harder time reaching an accurate conclusion about what’s going on.

·       Delays and logistical issues. Our medical system is very complicated and very flawed, such that many people have to deal with many moving parts when getting a diagnosis. If there are miscommunications between entities, testing delays, or other logistical issues, it can make it challenging, if not impossible, for medical providers to present a reasonable, accurate diagnosis.

·       Lack of access to resources. Similarly, an accurate diagnosis may not be possible if medical providers don’t have access to the resources they need. Lack of diagnostic equipment or testing devices may leave a medical provider without the requisite tools for accurate diagnosis.

·       Time constraints. And, of course, our medical system is overrun with patients in need of service. In the interest of time management and efficient prioritization, a medical practitioner may not have enough time to spend with a patient to fully understand what they’re going through.

·       Human heuristics and biases. Human beings are naturally biased. Confirmation bias can make us disproportionately weigh evidence in favor of what we’ve already assumed. Anchoring bias can similarly distort how we perceive pieces of data. And when doctors work in the same field for a long enough time, they may develop heuristics or mental shortcuts that save them time in most situations, but set them up for diagnostic failures in others.

How to Handle a Suspected Diagnostic Error

What should you do if you suspect a diagnostic error in your own medical treatment or in the treatment of a loved one? First, you should gather as much information as possible, getting copies of your records and writing down everything you can remember about your treatment. 

After that, contact an attorney and follow their advice as precisely as possible. Your medical malpractice lawyer can help you decide whether it makes sense to move forward with legal action and guide you in the next steps of the process if appropriate.

Medicine isn’t a perfect science, and it never will be. Medical diagnostic errors will always be possible and may remain commonplace for the foreseeable future. Even as our technology and scientific knowledge continue to advance, the landscape of medicine and healthcare is simply too complicated for us to have anywhere close to perfect accuracy.