Association of diagnostic error education and recognition frequency among Japanese medical students: a nationwide cross-sectional study

Taiju Miyagami; Takashi Watari; Yuji Nishizaki; Taro Shimizu; Yasuharu Tokuda

doi:10.1515/dx-2023-0105

Article

Association of diagnostic error education and recognition frequency among Japanese medical students: a nationwide cross-sectional study

Taiju Miyagami , Takashi Watari , Yuji Nishizaki , Taro Shimizu and Yasuharu Tokuda

Published/Copyright: October 9, 2023

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From the journal Diagnosis Volume 11 Issue 2

Abstract

Objectives

Diagnostic errors pose a significant risk to patient safety and have substantial medical and economic consequences. Despite their importance, diagnostic error education is currently lacking in standard pre-graduate curricula. This study aimed to investigate the incidence of diagnostic errors and the frequency of recognition among medical students in Japan.

Methods

A pilot survey was conducted immediately after the General Medicine In-Training Examination (GM-ITE), a comprehensive post-graduation test, administered to new residents right after graduation from medical school. The survey assessed whether they received education on diagnostic errors during their formal undergraduate medical education and whether they recognized diagnostic errors during their clinical training.

Results

Of the 564 examinees, 421 participated in the study. The majority of participants (63.9 %) reported receiving education on diagnostic errors, and 15.7 % recognized diagnostic errors during their clinical training. Significantly, those who received education on diagnostic errors had a higher rate of recognizing such errors compared to those who did not (19.7 vs. 8.6 %; p=0.0017).

Conclusions

These findings suggest that the recognition rate of diagnostic errors increases with improved literacy in diagnostic error education. This highlights the importance of incorporating diagnostic error education into medical curricula to develop effective strategies to prevent and manage diagnostic errors, and thereby enhance medical and patient safety. However, this study did not examine the specific educational content of the errors or the details of the recognition, necessitating further investigation in the future.

Keywords: diagnostic error; education; recognition

Corresponding author: Taiju Miyagami, MD, PhD, Department of General Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Juntendo University, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo, Japan, Phone: +81 3 3813 3111, Fax: +81 3 5802 1190, E-mail: tmiyaga@juntendo.ac.jp

Funding source: National Academic Research Grant Funds

Award Identifier / Grant number: JSPS KAKENHI: 22K17310

Research ethics: This study was approved by the JAMEP Ethics Committee (No. 22–27).
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.
Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.
Research funding: TM received a grant from the National Academic Research Grant Funds (JSPS KAKENHI: 22K17310).

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Received: 2023-08-09

Accepted: 2023-09-10

Published Online: 2023-10-09

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/dx-2023-0105

Keywords for this article

diagnostic error; education; recognition