Craig Aboltins

Craig Aboltins is an Infectious Diseases and General Physician at Northern Health, Melbourne, Australia. He is Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Deputy Director of the Division of Medicine and has an appointment as a Clinical Associate Professor with The University of Melbourne. He holds the Quality and clinical risk portfolio for the Division of Medicine at Northern Health which has led to a research interest on the topic of diagnosis and diagnostic errors.​

​Diagnostic Error

Diagnostic error is one of the most important safety problems in health care today and is particularly an issue in Internal Medicine specialties. It contributes to a significant proportion of serious clinical incidents in our health services yet substantive interventions are only now being established to address it. During this presentation the epidemiology, impact and costs of diagnostic error are discussed. Causes of diagnostic errors, including conditions at high risk of diagnostic error, are presented as well as possible approaches and resources available to avoid them.