Issues brief - Reducing diagnostic errors related to medical

The most common causes of diagnostic errors in the post-analytic stage include: • the over-reliance on diagnostic imaging in place of physical examination (Institute of Medicine and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015), • inadequate clinical history and patient interviewing by the diagnosing clinician (Newman- Toker and Makary, 2013; Rao and Levin, 2012), and • the qual. [...] Despite the direct cost of imaging contributing to a small portion of health spending (1.7% of $197.5 billion total health expenditure in 2018-19)(Australian Institute of Health and Welfare;, 2020), the ability of medical imaging to influence diagnostic and treatment decision-making can impact on the sustainability of the entire health care system. [...] In the United States, the Committee on Diagnostic Error in Health Care (Institute of Medicine and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2015) have outlined five rationale for the measurement of diagnostic errors: • Establish the incidence and nature of the problem. [...] Performance indicators for diagnostic imaging are needed to assess its direct value to the diagnostic process, identify the occurrence of diagnostic errors, and the outcome of the diagnostic process on patient health (Singh et al., 2019). [...] 5.3 Recommendation 3: Support the development of performance indicators to assess the value diagnostic imaging The development of performance indicators that measure the direct value of imaging to the diagnostic process are required to enhance its safe and effective use.