It has been found that most clinicians evaluate patients using an unstructured, open-ended approach, with limited training in evidence-based assessment methods, and that inaccurate diagnosis may be common in routine practice.

Nevertheless, the authors wrote, "The number of inaccurate clinical diagnoses (attributed to both malignancies and all other causes) remains alarmingly high."

An inaccurate diagnosis can lead to death.

After reviewing medical hypotheses, they conclude that "he suffered from bipolar disorder and died from mercury poisoning, an inadequate treatment administered as the result of an inaccurate diagnosis (syphilis).

The authors also found that giving women diagnoses over the telephone, a practice that has become increasingly common in prepaid health-care settings, was "fraught with inaccurate diagnoses."

It's often a Catch-22," said Ms. Walsh, "because 70 percent of people with Alzheimer's are also depressed and in up to 20 percent of the cases, an inaccurate diagnosis is made because of depression.

A diagnosis of leprosy, accurate or inaccurate, amounted to a criminal conviction.

This syndrome can mimic asthma, anaphylaxis, collapsed lungs, pulmonary embolism, or fat embolism, and can lead to an inaccurate diagnosis and inappropriate treatment which may be harmful to the patient.

This might include an inaccurate or incomplete diagnosis or treatment of a disease, injury, syndrome, behavior, infection, or other ailment.

According to one study he cites, as many as 15 percent of patients receive inaccurate diagnoses, a finding that matches research based on autopsies.