The Deadly Toll of Misdiagnosis: Thousands of Americans at Risk

Approximately 795,000 Americans die or suffer permanent disabilities each year due to misdiagnoses, according to a report by the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence. The study reveals that an estimated 371,000 patients die and 424,000 are permanently disabled annually due to incorrect diagnoses across various medical care settings. Medical professionals tend to misdiagnose diseases when symptoms resemble those of a different condition, particularly when symptoms are subtle. Strokes are the most commonly misdiagnosed condition, followed by sepsis, pneumonia, blood clots, and lung cancer. Reducing diagnostic errors for these five diseases by 50% could potentially prevent 150,000 deaths and disabilities per year.