Abstract
The commentary below was written by Dr. Gordon Schiff and Maria Mirica for the PRIDE (Primary Care Research in Diagnostic Errors) project, an initiative of the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Brigham and Women's Hospital Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. It highlights some of the key issues related to diagnostic accuracy issues for COVID-19 and beyond.
Highlights
The commentary below was written by Dr Gordon Schiff and Maria Mirica for the PRIDE (Primary Care Research in Diagnostic Errors) project, an initiative of the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Patient Safety Research and Practice with support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Health care providers and patients need to keep in mind that there are potentially serious issues and consequences related to diagnosing the COVID-19 infection
We can’t forget about, for example, bacterial pneumonia, tuberculosis, endocarditis, HIV, or polymyalgia/temporal arteritis, all of which are serious conditions that require specific, urgent therapy. Such alternative “don’t miss” diagnoses [5] need to be included in our differential diagnoses of presumptive COVID-19 infections, especially if there are atypical features or “red flags” [6] suggestive of alternate diagnoses warranting a different treatment
Summary
We need to remind ourselves that not every patient with malaise, pneumonia, cough, shortness of breath, or fever has COVID-19 infection. We can’t forget about, for example, bacterial pneumonia, tuberculosis, endocarditis, HIV, or polymyalgia/temporal arteritis, all of which are serious conditions that require specific, urgent therapy. Such alternative “don’t miss” diagnoses [5] need to be included in our differential diagnoses of presumptive COVID-19 infections, especially if there are atypical features or “red flags” [6] suggestive of alternate diagnoses warranting a different treatment. We would not want to be distracted by our focus on the COVID-19 diagnosis and
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
