This story was first published in April 2018 for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Listen at the Pomegranate Health website, iTunes or any Android podcasting app.

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In Episode 32 of Pomegranate Health, we discussed cognitive error in diagnostic reasoning. On this episode, we take a look at systems pressures that increase the likelihood of medical error, crystallised by the recent prosecution of NHS paediatrician Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba. Almost half of diagnostic errors are due to a combination of systems errors and individual cognitive error. Obvious systems effects come into play in understaffed acute care units; if a clinician is forced to see too many patients without enough time to make careful examinations or reasoned decisions, errors become more likely. The stepping stones of ordering, receiving and reviewing diagnostic tests and scans also allow much opportunity for error and delay. Guests on this episode discuss mechanisms to improve efficiency.

Guests: Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite FAIM, FACHSM, FAHMS, FFPH-RCP, FAcSS, Hon FRACMA (Australian Institute for Health Innovation, Macquarie University); Associate Professor Ian Scott FRACP (Director, Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Princess Alexandra Hospital, University of Queensland); Associate Professor David Heslop FRACGP (University of New South Wales).
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Written and produced by Mic Cavazzini. Additional audio recording from James Milson and Jennifer Leake. Music courtesy of Kai Engel (“Memories”), Jahzarr (“Become Death”), Sergey Cheremisinov (“Now You Are Here”) and Loch Lomond (“Violins and Tea”). Image courtesy of Max Pixel. Executive producer Anne Fredrickson.