CDC Launches Initiative to Help Laboratories in Rural Communities Improve Diagnostic Excellence
50-70% of medical decisions depend on laboratory test results
Diagnostic error results from delayed diagnosis, missed diagnosis, or wrong diagnosis
40,000 – 80,00 estimated deaths occur per year due to diagnostic errors
CDC aims to reduce diagnostic error by connecting laboratory professionals, clinicians, and leaders with the ECHO Project: A Model of Diagnostic Excellence. The goal of this project is to increase the knowledge and use of best practices for reducing diagnostic error to avoid unnecessary harm that people experience when they receive a delayed diagnosis, a missed diagnosis, or the wrong diagnosis. This community of practice is based on the ECHO Model™ designed around case-based learning and mentorship by remotely connecting laboratory professionals, clinicians, and leaders in rural and community hospital settings to experts in diverse disciplines of laboratory medicine and related specialties.
Throughout 2020, CDC will host real-time collaborative monthly ECHO sessions to allow for the sharing of tools and resources to reduce diagnostic error and advance diagnostic excellence to ultimately improve public health.
All public health, laboratory, and clinical professionals are welcome to participate in the real-time collaborative monthly sessions. Click here (
https://www.cdc.gov/labquality/echo.html) for monthly topics and to sign-up.
Participants from 37 states, Puerto Rico, and 16 countries participated in the kickoff session.
To learn more about how CDC is working to strengthen clinical laboratories, click here (
https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/strengthening-clinical-labs.html). For more information on CDC's efforts related to Diagnostic Error and support for laboratories around the country, please contact Annina Burns at
aburns@cdc.gov or 202-245-0555.
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Lezlee Koch, ASCLS Patient Safety Committee
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