How often does misdiagnosis occur?
Best Doctors has changed a diagnosis 22% of the time, modified treatment 61% of the time, and reduced invasive procedures by 67%. Some studies have also shown that autopsies uncover a missed or incorrect diagnosis up to 25% of the time. The figure hasn’t changed, even with high tech diagnostics. (CBC News, 2004) In Canada there has been much press regarding the number of pathology samples and diagnostic testing that has been misread, misinterpreted. The numbers of samples that are being reviewed are upwards of 25,000 going back nearly twenty years. In some of these cases, individuals originally diagnosed with cancer, and enduring months of debilitating, treatments have been proven to not even have the disease.
