[The role of autopsies in 21st century medicine]

Abstract

The decline in the autopsy rates has been already well-known for decades, but the causes of this trend may be not well characterized and not clearly reflected. The causes affect many fields beginning with the graduate courses, the curricular changes, the teaching methods, furthermore the attitudes of clinicians and pathologists toward autopsy, the greater confidence in diagnostic tests, autopsy reporting and regulation. Autopsy will always be the most important teaching performance in medical education and also will be a significant control of clinical practice. Exploring the affected fields (graduate and postgraduate teaching, clinical quality control, health care statistics, money allocation, research), we try to demonstrate the versatility of the autopsies. Improving the status of the autopsies will help the next generation doctors, as well as and the medical system will get better through the evidence-based quality control. The aims of the article are to give a comprehensive exploration of the influenced medical and non-medical factors by post-mortem examination, suggesting, that autopsies will have an important role in the 21st century medicine.