AHRQ receives $2 million to study reasons behind diagnostic errors
Diagnostic mistakes can happen when communication between patient and clinician fails or an incorrect diagnosis is made. Sometimes clinicians fail to even recognize a problem and a diagnosis is missed altogether. But why? That’s the subject of yesterday’s blog from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, written by Jeff Brady, MD, MPH, Director of AHRQ's Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety.
“Postmortem examinations have shown diagnostic errors were associated with approximately 10 percent of deaths in those patients,” Brady stated. “And diagnostic errors are the leading type of paid medical malpractice claims.”
AHRQ will use $2 million in federal funding to initiate research that will help them to identify more specifically why they occur and what needs to be done to reduce diagnostic errors, namely using evidence-based solutions.
In his blog, Brady noted the March 22 funding opportunity announcement, which outlines three key areas of interest:
· Quantifying the incidence of diagnostic errors.
· Understanding what contributes to these errors.
· Learning more about the link between diagnostic errors and outcomes, including adverse events
“These areas of interest are designed to build on what we already know about diagnostic errors and help us get a clearer picture of the problem,” Brady said. “We intend for the results from these research projects to inform strategies for solving the problem.”
AHRQ encourages those who apply to use electronic health records, patient registries, and other existing data sources. The research agenda will take a multi-disciplinary approach with input from clinicians, health service researchers, data scientists, and other key stakeholders with the goal of these entities developing partnerships to address data availability and use and formulate analytic questions.
“We know that cardiovascular conditions, cancer, and infections are the "Big 3" categories of disease for which diagnostic errors are most common,” said Brady. “Building on what the field already knows will put us all in a better position to apply that knowledge and be successful in solving the problem.”
