ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2015
Missed opportunities for diagnosis: lessons learned from diagnostic errors in primary care.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Understanding the role of GPs' gut feelings in diagnosing cancer in primary care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing evidence.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2020Pooled it
- Atypical Presentations at Risk for Diagnostic Errors in Internal Medicine: A Scoping Review.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Article
- Assessing laboratory specimen losses for the city of Johannesburg, South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Toward Optimizing the Impact of Digital Pathology and Augmented Intelligence on Issues of Diagnosis, Grading, Staging, and Classification.Modern pathology : an official journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Inc · 2025Review
- Performance evaluation of ChatGPT in detecting diagnostic errors and their contributing factors: an analysis of 545 case reports of diagnostic errors.BMJ open quality · 2024Article
- What would primary care practitioners do differently after a delayed cancer diagnosis? Learning lessons from their experiences.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2024Article
- Collaborative Diagnostic Conversations Between Clinicians, Patients, and Their Families: A Way to Avoid Diagnostic Errors.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes · 2023Article
- Incidence of Diagnostic Errors Among Unexpectedly Hospitalized Patients Using an Automated Medical History-Taking System With a Differential Diagnosis Generator: Retrospective Observational Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2022Article
- Investigating the links between diagnostic uncertainty, emotional exhaustion, and turnover intention in General Practitioners working in the United Kingdom.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Psychometric Properties of the Greek Version of the Medical Office on Patient Safety Culture in Primary Care Settings.Medicines (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Article
- Journeys to HIV testing and diagnosis among adults aged 50+ years in England: A qualitative interview study.Journal of health services research & policy · 2021Article
- Diagnostic Errors Induced by a Wrong a Priori Diagnosis: A Prospective Randomized Simulator-Based Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2021Article
- Regret among primary care physicians: a survey of diagnostic decisions.BMC family practice · 2020Article
- Safety netting in routine primary care consultations: an observational study using video-recorded UK consultations.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2019Observational
- The global burden of diagnostic errors in primary care.BMJ quality & safety · 2017Review
- Patient safety research in primary care: where are we now?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBecause of the difficulties inherent in diagnosis in primary care, it is inevitable that diagnostic errors will occur. However, despite the important consequences associated with diagnostic errors and their estimated high prevalence, teaching and research on diagnostic error is a neglected area.
aimTo ascertain the key learning points from GPs' experiences of diagnostic errors and approaches to clinical decision making associated with these. DESIGN AND
settingSecondary analysis of 36 qualitative interviews with GPs in Oxfordshire, UK.
methodTwo datasets of semi-structured interviews were combined. Questions focused on GPs' experiences of diagnosis and diagnostic errors (or near misses) in routine primary care and out of hours. Interviews were audiorecorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed thematically.
resultsLearning points include GPs' reliance on 'pattern recognition' and the failure of this strategy to identify atypical presentations; the importance of considering all potentially serious conditions using a 'restricted rule out' approach; and identifying and acting on a sense of unease. Strategies to help manage uncertainty in primary care were also discussed.
conclusionLearning from previous examples of diagnostic errors is essential if these events are to be reduced in the future and this should be incorporated into GP training. At a practice level, learning points from experiences of diagnostic errors should be discussed more frequently; and more should be done to integrate these lessons nationally to understand and characterise diagnostic errors.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.