Listen now (32 mins) | Listen Now Twenty years ago last month the National Academy of Sciences published the landmark report, “To Err Is Human, Building a Safer Health System.” The report found upwards of 98,000 people die each year in hospitals alone as a result of medical errors. One specific medical error, diagnostic error, was, and remains today, a substantial contributor. Defined as a wrong, delayed or missed diagnosis, misdiagnoses continue to constitute a major public health problem, adversely affecting more than 12 million annually. Approximately one-third of whom are seriously harmed and an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 die each year from diagnostic failures in hospitals alone. Resulting costs are estimated over $100 billion annually. Despite the problem's pervasiveness and dire effects, the federal government spends less than $10 million annually researching the problem. (For perspective, the 2019 NIH budget was $39 billion.)