Many people assume “AI misdiagnosis” means a machine made a mistake by itself. In real Waterloo-area cases, the issue is usually more complicated. Automated tools may influence care through clinical decision support, risk scoring, imaging or lab workflow assistance, triage software, or documentation systems.
Problems commonly happen when:
- A tool’s output is treated as a conclusion instead of a prompt for clinical judgment
- A clinician relies on a recommendation without reconciling it with symptoms, vital signs, or objective test findings
- Abnormal results aren’t surfaced clearly, escalated, or communicated in time
- Documentation generated or assisted by software becomes incomplete or misleading
The legal question isn’t whether technology exists—it’s whether the care team and facility followed a reasonable process for verifying and responding to diagnostic information.


