The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM) released new research that found inaccurate or delayed diagnoses are the most common, most catastrophic and most costly of medical errors.

The study was published in the journal Diagnosis. Researchers found that about one in three (34 percent) of malpractice cases resulted in serious harm is due to an inaccurate or delayed diagnosis, and 74 percent of inaccurate or delayed diagnoses that result in permanent disability or death are attributable to three disease categories: cancer, vascular events and infections.