Printer friendly version How likely is misdiagnosis? 23 June
2010 Leicester, University of A new research project at the
University of Leicester will review the accuracy of medical
diagnoses. Evaluating diagnostic strategy is crucial to clinical
practice as it helps maximise the efficacy of the treatments
which are offered to patients. Many lives are affected every day
by the diagnoses made by hospitals and medical doctors, and it
is vital that diagnoses are accurate. Nicola Novielli, a PhD
research student in the Department of Health Sciences at the
University of Leicester, has carried out research to assess the
accuracy of diagnoses made in hospitals and GP surgeries across
the UK. The research will develop new methods to evaluate the
accuracy of sequences of diagnostic tests. It will make
systematic reviews of diagnostic practices which will allow for
a more comprehensive evaluation of specific medical tools. The
results of these reviews will then be pooled together to analyse
medical techniques across the