NEW IOM Study: "countless patients harmed by wrong diagnoses"

[Mary]

This won't be news to most of us I figure, but it is news:

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles...n-diagnosis-harm-countless-patients-each-year

You can access the whole report here: http://iom.nationalacademies.org/Reports/2015/Improving-Diagnosis-in-Healthcare.aspx

 

[ScottTriGuy]

Wish I could say I was shocked.
Their trained that way.

 

[JamBob]

Wish I could say I was shocked.
Their trained that way.

I've had quite a few misdiagnoses and I still struggle with how to cope with being misdiagnosed as I think that misdiagnoses can cause all kinds of harms.

On the one hand, I feel very angry but on the other hand I feel like doctors are only human, they make human mistakes and they are badly trained in the first place so it's not really their fault. If I were them, I'd probably make mistakes too.

The most upsetting diagnoses for me arise from sexist or other prejudiced biases that lead doctors to make false assumptions about me as a patient. I don't like it when I am misdiagnosed due to assumptions about my gender - that really pisses me off.

 

[Mary]

I've had quite a few misdiagnoses and I still struggle with how to cope with being misdiagnosed as I think that misdiagnoses can cause all kinds of harms.

I understand doctors are only human - but - too many don't seem to realize that and get offended if someone questions their judgment. I think the biggest problem we CFS/ME patients encounter (besides ignorance) is a refusal to listen to us. Since we don't fit into a simple diagnostic box, we must be nuts, it's all in our heads and so on. I don't think doctors are trained to listen to patients, and that can lead to sexist and other biases as you say. It's crazy.