She had been going to the doctor for nearly two years, complaining she just didn’t feel right.

My mom, Eileen Wild of Wisconsin, was 54 years old at the time. She walked every day, watched what she ate, and didn’t smoke. She and my dad were looking forward to retirement, and the two of them were consciously trying to stay healthy so that they could enjoy the life they had worked so hard for.

Short of breath, with mild chest pain and a low white blood cell count, my mom was put on allergy medications and antibiotics by her physician. It should clear up, he told her. He ordered several screenings, looking perhaps for colon or skin cancer, two things they knew she was at risk for. She appeared to be fine.

Months later, on July 27, 1999, she was back. Still short of breath, my mom wanted one last visit with the doctor she had seen for decades before moving out-of-state. She and my dad, married nearly 40 years, had bought their new retirement home and were ready to move on with life.

[lz_ndn video=29941782]

I watched as they cried that day in the parking lot outside the doctor’s office. A quick X-ray of her lungs revealed a mass. She would need more tests to confirm, but it was most likely lung cancer. Her doctor apologized. He was devastated he had missed the signs.

Because the symptoms for lung cancer so often mimic other conditions, it is one of the most commonly misdiagnosed diseases, especially early on. By the time it is caught, the disease has often spread, and there are few successful treatments for advanced-stage disease.

Misdiagnosis is far too common a problem, and not only in the field of oncology, according to Dr. Lewis Levy, senior vice president of medical affairs and chief quality officer at Best Doctors in the Boston area.

TextBox_00000

Across the board, misdiagnosis of patients is on the rise, Levy told LifeZette. It is costing everyone — patient, hospitals and insurance providers — exorbitant amounts of money, reputations, limbs and lives.

Best Doctors is just one entity working to curb the trend. The online resource aims to connect patients and physicians with the best possible peer-reviewed and recommended medical resources, ensure everyone gets the right diagnosis and care plan,and empower patients to become their own health care advocates.

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

“Every person in the U.S. should expect at least one diagnostic error at some point in their life, and some of these errors could have very significant consequences,” Levy said.

Preventing errors moving forward starts by improving communication between doctor and patient.

The Institutes of Medicine also recently released the results of an eight-year study on the extent of misdiagnosis in the health care industry. The 369-page report, “Improving Diagnosis in Health Care,” is being called a serious wake-up call that diagnostic errors are a “significant contributor to patient harm and have received too little attention until now,” according to Victor J. Dzau, president of the National Academy of Medicine.

Efforts are underway to better educate care providers about the issues that might prevent them from making a correct diagnosis — lack of information for starters.

Levy said that despite a tremendous amount of information available about any patient, there is often a lack of information available at the actual point of care. This is due to what he calls the fragmentation of medical information. Information about your health history may reside in different places, with none of it connected via medical records. So when you’re asked routinely for information you know you’ve given a dozen times — there is a reason for it.

Related: The MD Burnout Epidemic

Another root cause with no easy solution is the lack of time providers have with patients.

“In this day and age, there has been an increasing focus on productivity, which has led to an office visit that has been getting shorter and shorter. The lack of information combined with a lack of time can often lead to diagnostic inaccuracy,” Levy told LifeZette.

A common third factor contributing to misdiagnosis is the explosion of medical information. Best Doctors finds it is often difficult for practicing physicians to stay on top of every aspect of every field they’re expected to know about.

Still, most in the medical field seem to believe they can better prevent errors moving forward, and it starts by improving communication between doctor and patient.

‘Never Angry but Incredibly Sad’
There were few appointments we didn’t go to together after my mother’s diagnosis. It was easy to be involved as she and my dad, having just sold their Wisconsin home, needed a place to stay near the hospital and there was an extra bedroom in our tiny little rental. Besides, I wanted to be that third set of ears for them and an advocate when she wanted or needed it.

Toward the end, though, the most important thing I could be for her was to help her pass away with dignity and as close to home as we could get. My mom didn’t want to die in the hospital where doctors were still valiantly trying to treat her. And whether they believed it or not, they kept telling us she might have months more to live.

After our pastor renewed her and my dad’s wedding vows at her bedside, we moved her into a new inpatient hospice care unit late in the evening of June 26, 2000. She passed away the next morning.

It was nearly 11 months to the day after that day we stood in the parking lot outside her doctor’s office.

My mother was never angry her diagnosis came so late into her seeking answers. She was however, incredibly sad. She was sad to leave my dad, sad she would never know any grandchildren, sad they would never get to enjoy that future she and my dad had promised each other.

While terrible and tragic, I’m personally incredibly grateful for the time I did have with my mom, and for the experience. It has strongly shaped how those of us who loved her live our lives now ¯ and how we also approach our own health care.