How diagnosis can get us wrong | Dr Jules Montague | TEDxLondon

Diagnosis is just a label, explains investigative journalist and former consultant neurologist, Dr Jules Montague. A diagnosis helps explain your symptoms and should get you the right medical treatment, but what happens when your diagnosis is affected by factors outside of science? It’s this thorny question that Jules tackles in her talk by sharing stories about three different diagnoses where bias fed into how these patients were treated. Luckily, Jules believes we can tackle bias within diagnosis and shares two ways forward to remove harmful biases and better protect patients.

Jules is an author, journalist and former consultant neurologist. She writes regularly for leading media outlets with a focus on humanitarian and investigative reporting. Her stories have led to big tech companies and international corporations withdrawing misleading or deceptive pseudoscientific adverts and claims. Her new book, The Imaginary Patient: How Diagnosis Gets Us Wrong, investigates how medical diagnosis is tainted by the forces of imperialism, politics, discrimination and Big Pharma. Her first book, Lost and Found, was published in 2018. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx