Author/Editor		Ermenc, Branko
Title		Minimizing mistakes in clinical diagnosis
Type		članek
Source		J Forensic Sci
Vol. and No.		Letnik 44, št. 4
Publication year		1999
Volume		str. 810-3
Language		eng
Abstract		It would be quite reasonable for us to expect the progress made in diagnostic technology to be accompained bya parallel improvement indiagnostic accuracy. In reality, however, the frequency of misdiagnoses remains the same, despite the fast progress which has been made by medical technology in the last 30 years. Autopsy is the best source of information on diagnostic accuracy. According to the hypothesis, an increase in the number of autopsies performed and the follow-up on them could reduce the number of diagnostic mistakes. In recent times, however th enumber of deaths has been declining steeply. We studied the autopsy reports for 1997, kept at the archive of the Institute for Forensic Medicine. Wew only took into account the deaths whhich occured within 24 h of admittance to the emergency wards of the Ljubljana University Hospital, including those patients who died subsequently as a consequence of accident or injury. We also included cases of sudden deaths which occured during operation or within 24 h after it. Following selection, we analized 444 out of the total of 921 autopsy reports, for each of which we carried out a comparisoon between the postmortem diagnosis, contained in the medical report on the death and the causes of death, which is modeled on WHO recommendations, i.e., the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), and in the medical documents, if any were submitted. Data are entered in these by using the ABC system where: A) direct cause of death, B) are circumstances that influeced the occurrence of death, and C) is original cause of death. (Abstract truncated at 2000 characters).
Descriptors		DIAGNOSTIC ERRORS HEART FAILURE, CONGESTIVE MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION AUTOPSY PULMONARY EMBOLISM CAUSE OF DEATH FORENSIC MEDICINE REPRODUCIBILITY OF RESULTS