Competencies for improving diagnosis: an interprofessional framework for education and training in health care.

Olson A, Rencic J, Cosby K, et al. Diagnosis (Berl). 2019 Jul 4; [Epub ahead of print].

Mitigating diagnostic error has become a critical patient safety concern. As a result, medical education and training programs are increasingly focused on teaching students and residentsabout diagnostic safety. This article describes the development of a novel interprofessional framework to improve diagnostic competency across health professions education programs. A consensus committee identified 12 key competencies that focus on individual performance (e.g., prioritizing differential diagnosis; utilizing second opinions, decision support, and checklists), teamwork (e.g., engaging patients and families; collaborating with other health professionals), and system-related aspects of clinical care (e.g., developing a culture of diagnostic safety; disclosing and learning from errors). The authors emphasize the innovative aspects of their recommendations and suggest that education programs develop curriculum incorporating these competencies to improve diagnosis. A previous WebM&M commentarydiscussed an incident involving a diagnostic error.

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