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Errors in Emergency and Trauma Radiology pp 17–34Cite as

Mistakes in Imaging Interpretation of Traumatic and Non-traumatic Brain Emergencies

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Abstract

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an error as an act that through ignorance, deficiency, or accident departs from or fails to achieve what should be done. Errors in medicine can arise from different causes including technical failure, perceptual problem, cognitive biases, system errors, etc., and mitigation of these errors requires a thorough understanding of the root causes in each scenario since it may be multifactorial. Errors in radiology are unique within the practice of medicine, since the missed imaging finding or misinterpretation of an imaging examination stays for posterity and can be accessed easily much later in time, unlike errors in clinical examinations that often are not accessible for investigation at a later time. They are also unique due to the inherent differences in the acquisition and interpretation of imaging examinations and are more prone toward perceptual and cognitive biases.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Carlos Torres, Nader Zakhari & Angela Guarnizo-Capera

  2. Department of Diagnostic Imaging, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Carlos Torres & Nader Zakhari

  3. Ottawa Hospital Research Institute OHRI, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Carlos Torres

  4. Department of Radiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Francisco Rivas-Rodriguez & Ashok Srinivasan

  5. Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Diego Nunez

Authors
  1. Carlos Torres
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  2. Nader Zakhari
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  3. Francisco Rivas-Rodriguez
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  4. Angela Guarnizo-Capera
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  5. Ashok Srinivasan
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  6. Diego Nunez
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carlos Torres .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Michael N. Patlas

  2. Department of Radiology, NYU Winthrop Hospital, Mineola, NY, USA

    Douglas S. Katz

  3. Department of Imaging, Pineta Grande Medical Center, Castel Volturno, Caserta, Italy

    Mariano Scaglione

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Torres, C., Zakhari, N., Rivas-Rodriguez, F., Guarnizo-Capera, A., Srinivasan, A., Nunez, D. (2019). Mistakes in Imaging Interpretation of Traumatic and Non-traumatic Brain Emergencies. In: Patlas, M., Katz, D., Scaglione, M. (eds) Errors in Emergency and Trauma Radiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05548-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05548-6_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05547-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05548-6

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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