Can't you keep my hand to yourself?!
Friday, February 24
  Perpetuating misdiagnoses
I thought this was a very interesting article.
With all the tools available to modern medicine — the blood tests and M.R.I.'s and endoscopes — you might think that misdiagnosis has become a rare thing. But you would be wrong. Studies of autopsies have shown that doctors seriously misdiagnose fatal illnesses about 20 percent of the time. So millions of patients are being treated for the wrong disease.

As shocking as that is, the more astonishing fact may be that the rate has not really changed since the 1930's. "No improvement!" was how an article in the normally exclamation-free Journal of the American Medical Association summarized the situation.
 
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Comments:
Not entirely surprising, I guess. Most diagnosis is primarily made through observation via unaugmented sensory input. Most recent advances in medicine appear to be technological rather than theoretical, and advances of this kind are not going to impact on initial diagnosis. By the way- Do yah do yah like ta boogie? I just posted a picture of George Bush pleasuring Satan, and I demand your attention! Come and see me immediately, and leave comments so that I can pretend I have friends.
 
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