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Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Musculoskeletal spine, CT, MR, Diagnostic procedure, Perception image, Medico-legal issues, Quality assurance, Education and training
Authors:
R. Mirón Mombiela1, F. Facal de Castro2, J. Mota Martinez3; 1Valencia, Gu/ES, 2Valencia/ES, 3Barcelona/ES
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2016/C-0444
Conclusion
Approach to errors and culture of the error
Active errors or diagnostic errors committed by the radiologist are subject to mental traps or psychological biases,
and are difficult to control.
It is part of our job to use strategies to minimize them,
implement training sessions on errors,
double reading,
lifelong learning,
and seek consultation with other colleagues or feedback (feedback) from the requester on the final diagnosis.
Our culture and education has tended to stigmatize the error and the people who commit it.
This favours fear,
shame and therefore its concealment.
The best way to approach an error is to analyse the entire system rather than focus individually on the person who committed it [16,
19].
It is not easy,
nor quick,
and requires to establish a positive culture of error understood as an opportunity for all [26].
We are not required infallibility,
but we are expected not to make mistakes beyond “the acceptable standard".
One of the possible strategies to know our error rates is to make double reading of the cases [27,
28].
To uncover and measure our mistakes does not mean to "open Pandora's box" with catastrophic consequences for the radiologist,
but on the contrary,
it is the mandatory way to improve and be competitive in a globalised digital world.
Finally,
in the spinal column we must remember that we should be meticulous in the radiological reading of the study as we are in other anatomical areas,
and let us not forget that a third of negligence lawsuits to radiologists are related to the omission of spine fractures.