Autopsy interrogation of emergency medicine dispute cases: how often are clinical diagnoses incorrect?

Liu D, Gan R, Zhang W, et al. J Clin Pathol. 2018;71:67-71.

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.

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