Published 18 November 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a2549
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a2549

News

X ray pictures in 88% of Michigan doctor’s asbestosis diagnoses were found to be normal

Fred Charatan

1 Florida

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

All but one of 91 cases of asbestosis that were due to be heard in a Michigan court this month have been withdrawn by lawyers after the judge who was to hear the cases was shown evidence indicating that the doctor who made the diagnoses had got them wrong.

Michael Kelly, an occupational doctor in Lansing, Michigan, has worked for the past 15 years for the state of Michigan. In that time he diagnosed 7323 cases of asbestosis. In each case that he was asked to consider a possible diagnosis of asbestosis he was paid a fee of $500 (£335; {euro}400) by plaintiffs’ lawyers.

However, evidence that Dr Kelly may have misdiagnosed a number of cases emerged after he sent his patients to a hospital for radiography. Under hospital rules, staff radiologists also read the films. Of 1875 x ray pictures reviewed both by Dr Kelly and hospital radiologists, 88% . . . [Full text of this article]


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