Autopsy interrogation of emergency medicine dispute cases: how often are clinical diagnoses incorrect?
Liu D, Gan R, Zhang W, et al. Autopsy interrogation of emergency medicine dispute cases: how often are clinical diagnoses incorrect? J Clin Pathol. 2018;71(1):67-71. doi:10.1136/jclinpath-2017-204484.
Autopsies are an underutilized tool for identifying diagnostic errors. Researchers evaluated 117 autopsies for patients in Shanghai whose cause of death was disputed or required third-party investigation. Diagnostic errors that would have altered treatment or survival were found in nearly 61%. This number is higher than estimates from a previous systematic review, likely because all patients in this sample had a disputed cause of death.