Errors in the diagnostic process revisited: a formidable personal challenge

Recent research reveals that diagnostic errors remain alarmingly common, calamitous-often leading to serious harm or death, costly and complex to identify, study and prevent. Interventions to decrease diagnostic errors have mostly been focused on system changes at the institutional level, which are hard and time-consuming to implement and have demonstrated mixed results. Based on recent research of the diagnostic process and identification of recurring breakdowns preceding errors, we believe that while system improvements are underway, the burden is on the individual practitioner in each encounter, predominantly in primary care, and suggest basic, easily-adopted techniques and strategies that are likely to yield an improved accuracy of diagnosis and better follow-up.