Congratulations Dr. Docking!

The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association recently awarded post-doctoral Research Fellow Dr. Sean Docking the highly competitive Deeble Summer Scholarship. The scholarship will give Sean the opportunity to immerse himself with experts in the field of health and policy and allow him to examine the systematic causes and health policies that contribute to diagnostic errors associated with medical imaging.

Medical imaging plays a key role in the accurate and differential diagnosis of a wide range of conditions. At present, incentives to reduce the rate of diagnostic errors are hampered by Australia’s current, fee-for-service model of funding and the plethora of private corporations that deliver medical imaging.

Estimates suggest that 140,000 diagnostic errors are made in Australia each year. The result of a diagnostic error can have a significant impact on patients’ physical and mental health. Dr. Docking’s Deeble Summer Scholarship will allow him to do very important work to assist in the plight of reducing diagnostic error.