We all make mistakes, but errors by physicians can lead to significant harm to patients. Can we learn from our mistakes? A new study looks for common threads in one area: misdiagnosis.
diagnosis
There is a reason on planes when going through safety instructions you are advised to put the oxygen mask on yourself before you can assist anyone else. Debunking the "right" way to cope with a diagnosis is crucial to outcomes.
Information is like any other medical therapy. When it's within a therapeutic range, it can be curative. But at toxic levels, it can be destructive. Its quantity will never trump its quality.
Science and medicine often move in small, incremental steps. A framework for researchers studying Alzheimer's Disease won't make the evening news, but it is a victory in a much longer battle. We should pause to acknowledge the quiet work of our scientists and clinicians.
It may be the height of the flu season but diagnosing flu remains a challenge for physicians.
High-profile incidents in which a mentally ill person commits a violent crime has led to the stereotype that these struggling people all pose a dire threat to society. But a team of researchers, studying data from more than 75,000 patients, has developed a model that accurately predicts which patients are unlikely to become violent.
A new study out of Sweden shows that a rapid test for a cardiac enzyme, when combined with a normal electrocardiogram, rules out a heart attack with 99.8 percent reliability. What are the implications of this finding for the future?