Best Doctors conducted an informal poll of our selected Best Doctors Experts to gauge their opinions on diagnostic accuracy and error. The aggregate results of all 630 respondents are available here, providing interesting insight into physicians' attitudes on diagnostic accuracy.

1. Conducted by
Best Doctors
Physician Perspectives Survey
Measuring physician attitudes on
diagnostic error and accuracy

2. Respondents by Specialty
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
Allergy and Immunology
Anatomic Pathology
Anesthesiology
Cardiovascular Disease
Child Neurology
Clinical Biochemical Genetics
Clinical Genetics
Clinical Pathology
Colon and Rectal Surgery
Dermatology
Diagnostic Radiology
Emergency Medicine
Endocrinology and Metabolism
Family Medicine
Gastroenterology
Internal Medicine
Medical Oncology and…
Nephrology
Neurological Surgery
Neurology
None
Nuclear Medicine
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Ophthalmology
Orthopaedic Surgery
Other
Otolaryngology
Pediatrics
Physical Medicine and…
Psychiatry
Pulmonary Medicine
Radiation Oncology
Rheumatology
Surgery
Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery
Urology
Vascular Surgery

3. Relative to the many other types of adverse patient outcomes,
where would you rank misdiagnosis (a diagnosis that is wrong,
missed, or could have been made much earlier)?
26%
45%
26%
3%
An extremely important problem
(341)
An important problem
(606)
Somewhat of a problem
(349)
Not at all a problem
(37)
n: 1333

4. In your own practice, how often would you estimate
20%
7%
34%
39%
Almost never
At least weekly
About once a
month
About once a year
misdiagnoses occur?
(276)
(100)
(457)
(520)
n: 1353

5. Of the choices below, which would you say is the most significant
barrier to improving diagnostic accuracy?
35%
16%
30%
19% Fragmented or missing
information across medical
information systems
(476)
Inadequate diagnostic resources
(e.g. laboratory, radiology,
pathology, testing)
(210)
Inadequate time for patient
evaluation
(410)
Incomplete or inaccurate
medical history provided by the
patient
(253)
n: 1349

6. Which action below would you say would MOST encourage
reporting of diagnostic errors?
25%
17%
11%
30%
17%
Confidential reporting/data-sharing on
misdiagnosis as part of hospital
accreditation
(342)
Establishing a national, voluntary
misdiagnosis reporting system
(236)
Having a local champion that would
encourage reporting
(142)
Incentives for hospitals from state and
federal lawmakers to participate in
confidential misdiagnosis data gathering and
reporting
(403)
Increasing the number of national events
and conferences devoted to misdiagnosis
(230)
n: 1353

7. Which of the following steps would be useful in improving
diagnosis in your practice or hospital (choose all that apply)?
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Establishment of a leadership board to monitor and implement
system changes to improve diagnosis
Providing clear diagnostic algorithms for critical conditions
Having easier access to specialist consultants
Education about commonly misdiagnosed conditions in my specialty
Development of a secure online environment for collaboration with
peers on challenging cases
Computer-based diagnostic support tools (eg. Up-to-Date or online
tools to help with differential diagnosis like Isabel or DXplain)
(263)
(501)
(278)
(923)
(418)
(369)
n: 2752