All Content

Strengthening diagnostic error research and training can lead to sustained diagnostic improvement. Expanding upon legislation introduced in 2020, the “Improving Diagnosis in Medicine Act of 2022” would establish research centers of diagnostic excellence, an interagency council on improving diagnosis in healthcare, and fellowship and training grants in diagnostic safety, as well as convene an expert panel on diagnostic error measurement and data collection and prioritize stakeholder engagement across all activities.

A clinician's knowledge of an existing condition can implicitly affect treatment recommendations and decisions. This alert highlights the presence of diagnostic overshadowing as a type of bias that is prone to affect disadvantaged or stigmatized patient populations. Listening training programs, improved use of patient data review, and assessment techniques are recommended to trigger diagnostic curiosity to encourage complete decision-making methods when serving patients.

The strengthening of diagnostic error research and processes can strategically ensure lasting diagnostic improvement. The ‘‘Improving Diagnosis in Medicine Act of 2020’’ outlines characteristics of a proposed Federal program to enhance agency cooperation and coordination to improve diagnosis in health care by addressing systemic weaknesses, knowledge gaps, and training issues in the workforce.

As COVID-19 spreads globally, there is growing interest in methods for rapid diagnosis and the risk of diagnostic error. Delayed diagnosis of COVID-19 may lead to worse patient outcomes and increased exposure of healthy individuals to the novel coronavirus. Two early studies suggested that chest CT may have a sensitivity as high as 97%. However, higher quality studies have shown that the sensitivity of chest CT is only 67-93% among patients with viral pneumonia and imaging features must be interpreted with caution when the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection is low. Based on the risks of misdiagnosis and viral transmission, the American College of Radiology recommends that CT should not be used to screen for or as a first-line test to diagnose COVID-19. CT should be reserved for hospitalized, symptomatic patients with specific clinical indications.