What does differential diagnosis mean in a medical malpractice claim?

Misdiagnosis resulting in injuries are common in medical malpractice claims. In order to assess whether the misdiagnosis resulted from negligence, we look whether the doctor conducted an appropriate “differential diagnosis”. This requires the doctor to list in his or her head all the possible medical explanations for a patient’s symptoms/complaint and then systematically take steps to rule out the most severe possible explanation via tests/imaging, etc. If a doctor fails to do this and an injury results, you may be entitled to compensation.