> I suppose very few doctors have way less than 90% accuracy It's a reasonable thought. When this has been studied at autopsy, however, doctors seem to be righ

> I suppose very few doctors have way less than 90% accuracy It's a reasonable thought. When this has been studied at autopsy, however, doctors seem to be right 70-85% of the time (higher when very confident of the diagnosis) [1]. There are a bunch of studies that show this, and you can find many in the linked meta-analysis. Of course, this focuses on things that can lead to death. If your doctor misdiagnosis RSV as metapneumovirus, you'll survive either way in all likelihood, so for some diseases we'll probably never know the true diagnostic accuracy. [1] = http://www.pathkids.com/autopsy/hasleton%20on%20discrepancies.pdf http://www.pathkids.com/autopsy/hasleton%20on%20discrepancie...