Announcing the UCSF CoDEx Strategic Plan

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Though the patient safety field has embraced diagnostic excellence over the past decade, recent studies have shown that patients continue to experience harm from diagnostic errors in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. Despite advances in measuring diagnostic errors and promising innovations for preventing errors – including artificial intelligence – measurable progress remains elusive.

The UCSF Coordinating Center for Diagnostic Excellence (CoDEx) mission is to lead change in the field of diagnostic excellence by facilitating activities that result in measurable improvement in diagnostic quality, safety, and equity. CoDEx’s activities will focus on diagnostic approaches that directly affect patient outcomes, with an emphasis on improving diagnosis from the patient perspective. Recognizing that diagnostic errors occur due to a combination of “sharp end” (individual clinician) errors and “blunt end” (health care system) flaws, we will prioritize improving diagnosis in real-world environments using analysis of diagnostic successes and failures. We will integrate equity principles into all our activities as we work toward a healthcare system in which all patients receive accurate and timely diagnoses. Our position within the UCSF Division of Clinical Informatics (DOC-IT) will enable CoDEx to provide perspective on the exciting recent developments in artificial intelligence and inform how these approaches are integrated into clinical practice.

We are very pleased to share our inaugural five-year strategic plan, which provides details on our planned goals and objectives for CoDEx. We engaged a broad range of stakeholders, including our internal and external advisory boards, to identify how CoDEx can meet the needs of the diagnostic excellence field now and in the future. We are grateful to our funders, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, for their support of diagnostic excellence and their input in crafting this plan. GBMF’s support of diagnostic excellence has left a remarkable legacy that we hope to continue.

CoDEx will have four core activities, the goals for which are as follows:

  • The Learning Hub will be the leading objective source for information on advances in diagnostic excellence.
  • The Engagement Hub will build a community of diagnostic excellence scholars at UCSF and nationwide, informed by and responsive to patient perspectives.
  • The Action Incubators will measurably improve diagnosis by bringing together key stakeholders (including policymakers and payors) to target improvement in specific areas of diagnosis on a defined timeline.
  • The Innovation Hub will facilitate novel programs to address emerging areas in diagnostic excellence.

Thank you for your interest in CoDEx; we encourage you to read the strategic plan and to contact us with questions or suggestions.

View the UCSF CoDEx Strategic Plan

Sincerely,
Sumant Ranji, MD
Director, UCSF Coordinating Center for Diagnostic Excellence (CoDEx)
Professor of Clinical Medicine, UCSF at San Francisco General Hospital