Short communication Error in radiology

The level of error in radiology has been tabulated from articles on error and on ''double reporting'' or ''double reading''. The level of error varies depending on the radiological investigation, but the range is 2-20% for clinically significant or major error. The greatest reduction in error rates will come from changes in systems. Error in medicine has become headline news in recent years. Politicians and lawyers have been known to remark that no mistakes are acceptable in medicine and that removal of ''bad'' doctors will remove the tarnish of error from the National Health Service. At a recent British Institute of Radiology meeting entitled ''How much error is acceptable in radiology?'', figures were presented regarding the currently reported level of error in radiological investigations, since it is important to know the present situation to determine what is fair and reasonable. A search of the medical literature for articles including ''error'' or ''mis- takes in radiology'' in the title produces few papers, but articles on ''double reporting'' or ''double reading'' can also be informative on the subject of error. This paper reports on the level of error or variance documented in publications on error and ''double reading'' in radiology. between the two observers was taken as being proportional to error. Whenever the paper inclu- ded an indication of the clinical importance of the divergence, this was also recorded. Minimum error was assumed to be 50% of the divergence rate between the two observers where no overall consensus was reached, or a minimum of 100% of the individual divergence from the consensus view. Where the result is given as an individual percentage concordance with the consensus view, this is equal to the accuracy. The error is then taken to be the total minus the concordance in percentage.