High-Tech Misdiagnosis

WHEN a doctor says that his diagnosis reveals you have a certain disorder, can you be sure that his diagnosis is accurate? A report published by the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail says not always! “Studies comparing autopsy findings with the cause of death reported by the doctor find the doctor was wrong 10 to 30 per cent of the time.” This in spite of a proliferation of high-tech diagnostic equipment. Interestingly, Dr. T. F. McElligott, president of the Canadian Association of Pathologists, thinks that overreliance on such equipment is part of the problem.

“There is such sophisticated diagnostic imaging now,” he said, “many clinicians feel that they have not all that much more to learn from the autopsy, so they are not requesting it.” He declared, “I think this assumption is not correct.” The newspaper also drew attention to several recent studies that revealed that “about 20 per cent of fatal diseases continue to be misdiagnosed.”

For example, at a United States university teaching hospital, a 30-year study of autopsies “found that, rather than increasing the over-all accuracy of diagnoses, the reliance on high-technology tests . . . actually contributed to missed diagnoses in some cases.” Also, at one hospital in Winnipeg, Canada, 13 percent of autopsies performed in 1983 “found a major missed diagnosis that, if it had been detected before death, would have resulted in a longer life for the patient or a possible cure.”

At another Winnipeg hospital, a study of the autopsies of 200 cadavers “said 24 per cent found different underlying diseases than were diagnosed. In 10 per cent, the outcome might have been different had the diagnosis made before death proved correct.” In view of these startling facts, it is wise for people with serious health problems to seek more than one opinion from independent medical practitioners.