Findings from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Reveals New Findings on Breast Cancer Screening (Oncologic Errors In Diagnostic Radiology: a 10-year Analysis Based On Medical Malpractice Claims): Diagnostics and Screening – Breast Cancer Screening

2021 OCT 06 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Researchers detail new data in Diagnostics and Screening - Breast Cancer Screening. According to news reporting originating from New York City, New York, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “To retrospectively analyze the nature and extent of oncology-related errors accounting for malpractice allegations in diagnostic radiology. The Comparative Benchmarking System of the Controlled Risk Insurance Company, a database containing roughly 30% of medical malpractice claims in the United States, was searched retrospectively for the period 2008 to 2017.”

Financial support for this research came from Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute.

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, “Claims naming radiology as a primary service were identified and were stratified and compared by oncologic versus nononcologic status, allegation type (diagnostic versus nondiagnostic), and imaging modality. Over the 10-year period, radiology was the primary responsible service for 3.9% of all malpractice claims (2,582 of 66,061) and 12.8% of claims with diagnostic allegations (1,756 of 13,695). Oncology (neoplasms) accounted for 44.0% of radiology cases with diagnostic allegations, a larger share than any other category of medical condition. Among radiology cases with diagnostic allegations, high-severity harm occurred in 79% of oncologic but just 42% of nononcologic cases. Of all oncologic radiology cases, 97.4% had diagnostic allegations, and just 55.0% of nononcologic radiology cases had diagnostic allegations. Imaging misinterpretation was a contributing factor for a large majority (80.7% [623 of 772]) of oncologic radiology cases with diagnostic allegations. The modalities most commonly used in oncologic radiology cases with diagnostic allegations involving misinterpretation were mammography and CT. Oncology represents the largest source of radiology malpractice cases with diagnostic allegations. Oncologic radiology malpractice cases are more likely than nononcologic radiology cases to be due to diagnostic errors. Furthermore, compared with those that are nononcologic, oncologic radiology cases with diagnostic allegations are more likely to be associated with high-severity harm.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Efforts are warranted to reduce misinterpretations of oncologic imaging.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Oncologic Errors In Diagnostic Radiology: a 10-year Analysis Based On Medical Malpractice Claims. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 2021;18(9):1310-1316. Journal of the American College of Radiology can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Inc, Ste 800, 230 Park Ave, New York, NY 10169, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Journal of the American College of Radiology - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-the-american-college-of-radiology/)

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Hedvig Hricak, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Dept. of Radiology, 1275 York Ave, New York, NY 10065, United States. Additional authors for this research include Andrew B. Rosenkrantz, Dana Siegal, Jillian A. Skillings, Ada Muellner and Sharyl J. Nass.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2021.05.001. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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