720 - Medical Diagnostic Errors Are a Public Health Emergency
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2024
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Missed diagnoses account for 800,000 deaths or permanent disabilities among Americans every year. Johns Hopkins neurologist Dr. David Newman-Toker talks with Stephanie Desmon about the consequences of missed opportunities and diagnoses, especially for vascular events, infections, and cancers. They also discuss why solutions are complex and will require major efforts in terms of research and resources.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jhhhu.edu. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jhhu.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:31.1 | This is Lindsay Smith Rogers. |
| 0:33.5 | Today, Stephanie Desmond talks to Dr. David Newman Toker, a Johns Hopkins neurologist who studies diagnostic errors. |
| 0:41.1 | An estimated 795,000 Americans die or are permanently disabled by diagnostic errors each year, which Newman Toker calls a public health emergency. |
| 0:52.4 | They discuss what can be done to prevent |
| 0:54.3 | some of the most serious errors. |
| 0:56.7 | Let's listen. |
| 0:58.3 | David Newman Toker, thanks so much for joining me. |
| 1:01.3 | Thank you for having me. |
| 1:03.0 | So today I want to talk about your area of expertise, |
| 1:05.6 | which is medical diagnostic errors. |
| 1:08.7 | And you've recently called them a public health emergency. |
| 1:12.1 | Could you please elaborate on that? |
| 1:14.9 | Sure. |
| 1:16.5 | I think a lot of people in the patient safety and quality |
| 1:19.6 | movement haven't necessarily used that framing. |
| 1:22.0 | But I think it's important that we do. |
| 1:24.4 | And the reason why is because we've estimated that there are about 800,000 Americans who |
| 1:30.4 | suffer death or permanent disability each year, many, many, many more worldwide, no doubt, |
... |
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