Medical Diagnosis and Statistical Errors

Medical diagnosis involves the process of determining the disease. But there is always a risk of making errors in diagnosis. Judging a sick person well is more to be avoided than judging a well person sick. This informal norm for handling uncertainty is part of the subculture of the medical profession. The assumptions underlying it are examined and it is suggested that physicians guided by the rule, too often place patients in the ‘sick role’ who ought not to be. There is always a risk of making errors in diagnosis. The implications and repercussions of wrong diagnosis must be understood so that necessary steps and procedures may be adopted to curtail the harm that may occur due to such cases. In this paper we study and explain two types of errors that can commonly occur in disease diagnosis.