Misdiagnosis results in thousands of adverse health issues and deaths every year. According to a 2014 study published in the medical journal BMJ Quality & Safety, approximately 12 million American adults are misdiagnosed each year, amounting to 1 of every 20 adult patients. In about half of those cases, the study found, the wrong diagnosis had the potential to result in severe harm to the patient.
Diagnosing many conditions can be difficult, cancer in particular. But if doctors, oncologists, radiologists, and other health care professionals are negligent in making their determinations as to a patient’s condition and make an incorrect cancer diagnosis, it can be the basis of a medical malpractice claim. In fact, one study concluded that misdiagnoses are the leading cause of medical malpractice payouts, totaling nearly $39 billion over the past 25 years. Cancer misdiagnoses were some of the most common, along with incorrect diagnoses of infections, pulmonary embolisms, heart attacks, and cardiovascular disease.
A study at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore examined tissue samples from 6,000 cancer patients across the country and found that one out of every 71 cases was misdiagnosed and up to one out of five cancer cases was misclassified. It is estimated that an astounding 1.3 million people are misdiagnosed with cancer every single year.