Researchers at Veterans' Center of Houston, led by Dr. Charntip Singh, associate professor of the School of Medicine Beilor Texas, published in the medical journal «BMJQuality & Safety», according to the "LiveScience", have estimated that each year about 12 million adult Americans get misdiagnosed by doctors. Researchers noted that all stakeholders (public authorities, hospitals, doctors) should "strengthen their efforts to trace and reduce diagnostic errors.

Previous studies of patients' safety had focused on the problems existing in hospitals. New research highlights the general problem of wrong diagnosis by doctors (individuals, clinical and others). Researchers examined a number of random medical records and then did a statistical assessment of potential diagnostic errors for the whole population, given that approximately 80% of adults visit a doctor every year. For some diseases, such as cancers of the lung and intestine, the estimated percentage of diagnostic error is significantly less than 5%.

On the other hand, due to possible gaps in the medical records, the researchers do not rule out that for all the diseases the rate of diagnostic errors may exceed 5%.