Failure to Diagnose Cancer and Misdiagnosis of Cancer
This is an excerpt from an article on ConsumerSafety.org. To read the full article, please use this link. Common Cancers for Late Diagnosis To help keep you and your family educated, we’ve provided research on the most commonly misdiagnosed cancers... Cervical Cancer Cervical cancer screening is done via a pap smear, which you should receive every 3 years from ages 21-65. There are two main reasons why cervical cancer is missed. First is that the woman did not receive regular
Your child's learning issues may actually be vision problems.
The upshot: Learning disabilities might actually be easily remedied vision problems. Don't delay. Get their eyes checked annually, start
Patients Front & Center
The next evolution in patient safety requires patients willing to engage and participate with the institutions that deliver healthcare. That
Patient No More
We're overdue for true patient-doctor partnerships. Reporting from the 10th International Diagnostic Error in Medicine (DEM) conference. Haven't we patients been patient long enough? It's been 21 years since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) called for a "sustained partnership" between clinicians and patients "predicated on the development of mutual trust, respect, and responsibility." And the medical community has responded...although in slow motion. Despite their call for pat
Unraveling the Gordian Knot
When your child has been ill for a long time, and you feel that his doctors have failed him; when you feel betrayed and dismissed by the very people you turned to for help, it's hard to believe that anyone in the medical establishment truly cares. Instead of hands reaching down to help you rise from the muck of misdiagnosis, you see the palms of surrender, the shrug of shoulders, the glint of irritation that you've returned, again, to ask for answers. So you can imagine my jo
Heading for Boston
It's a big week. I'm re-launching my website a few hours before heading to Boston for two important meetings. The first is a joint effort between the Cambridge-based think tank Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM). Both are focused on making healthcare better for all of us. I'm on a panel of experts focused on Interventions to Improve Diagnosis and our first face-to-face meeting is in 6 hours. I'm excited about the
