College of American Pathologists Member Argues for More Autopsies
Autopsies are vitally important to practice of medicineBy MARY FOWKES, MD
STATNews
The newly dead have stories to tell and lessons to teach. But we aren’t listening.
Autopsy, once a mainstay of medicine, is now often an afterthought. Fifty years ago, about half of people who died in hospitals in the United States underwent autopsy. Today, only about 1 in 20 do. Some new hospitals are even being built without a suite in which to perform autopsies. (I am focusing here on in-hospital deaths. Natural deaths that happen out of the hospital rarely come back for autopsy.)
This