Acute stroke

TL;DR: The discrepancies in death records are mainly correctable aberrations. Over the years, death certification has improved and provided more precise information.

Abstract: discrepancies turn out to be mainly aberrations which are correctable in their wider context. Over the years death certification has improved with advances in medicine. More information is given and it is more precise. We should tackle administrative weaknesses such as failure of pathologists to state explicitly causes of death, failure to update after necropsy, and relegation of completion to junior doctors without instruction. Over the past 140 years these records (the results of everyday experience of doctors) have contributed a great deal to our knowledge of the health of the nation and to medical research. Of course, there is a continuous need to study their flaws -especially as part of practical research-as was done in the papers by the study group of the Royal College of Physicians. I trust that these papers will be read constructively, otherwise they may have a negative effect, the best becoming the enemy of the good.