Medical misdiagnoses put the lives of 800,000 people at risk every year

Around 795,000 people die every year or are permanently incapacitated because of incorrect medical diagnoses in public hospitals in the United States, according to a recent study.

The alarming figures were revealed by the John Hopkins Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence. Director David Newman-Toker of the institute stated that “reducing diagnostic errors by 50% for stroke, sepsis, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism and lung cancer could cut permanent disabilities and deaths by 150,000 per year.”