Probe Fails To Uncover Reasons For X-ray Blunders

A Hospital Authority probe has failed to identify why medical staff from three major hospitals missed shadows on initial X-rays in three separate cases.

It can simply be concluded that all the staff involved made "perceptual errors", the authority said.

But it added that it will study whether artificial intelligence could be used to do this kind of diagnostic work.

The cases of mistaken or missed readings involved the Queen Mary, Prince of Wales and Princess Margaret hospitals.

The medical staff involved had all missed shadows on the initial X-rays, and they were spotted only a year or two later. The patients either had cancer or benign tumours.

The probe said the seven or eight doctors involved in total were of different seniority levels and from different departments. And it said they could have made the errors due to an array of reasons, such as juggling too many tasks at the same time, or them being too focused on finding one problem and ignoring others.

Dr Wong Yiu-chung, who chaired the investigation panel, said it was hard to narrow down on why the doctors missed the signs of illness.

"It is a matter of a lack of detection. Not a lack of knowledge," he said.

The Hospital Authority once again apologised to the patients and their families, and said there are mechanisms in place to decide whether any staff should be punished.

The authority said it will take action to address the "systematic problems" exposed by these blunders.

One of them would be to start a study by the end of the year to see if artificial intelligence could be introduced to assist doctors.

In the meantime, the HA said it will have senior doctors recheck X-rays of patients directly discharged from emergency wards. It will also train doctors to improve their skills in interpreting X-rays.