Next time you take your child to the pediatrician, you may want to get a second opinion. A recent study has found that more than half of pediatricians make diagnostic errors in their patients at least once a month. Furthermore, almost half reported making diagnostic errors resulting in harm to patients at least once a year. Results also showed that misdiagnosis of viral illnesses, such as bacterial infections, were the most common diagnostic errors made by participants in the survey, followed by misdiagnosis of medication adverse effects and psychiatric diseases. These were the most interesting findings from the study published online on June 21 in Pediatrics.

Only four percent of respondents reported that they had not made a diagnosis error in the last month, compared to over 50 percent who responded yes. Furthermore, nearly half of respondents expressed that the failure to gather available medical information (i.e. patient history, chart review) was the biggest reason for process breakdowns associated with misdiagnosis.

The study was conducted by Hardeep Singh, MD, from the Houston Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Center of Excellence at Baylor College. Singh expressed that this study "provides new data about the types of diagnostic errors among children and their causes and lays the groundwork for a multifaceted approach to reducing such errors."

The study involved a lengthy literary review process and input from many specialists, focus groups and pilot testing before it was ready to be launched. The survey itself contained 25 items, taking from 15 to 20 minutes to complete, and was distributed to 1362 academic pediatricians, trainees, and community-based pediatricians at three sites. These sites included: two tertiary-care institutions in Houston, Tx., one tertiary-care institution in Cincinnati, Ohio, and 109 affiliated clinics.

This study was also supported by the National Institute of Health.

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