NEWSBYJENNIFER AUSTIN, MD

As the rest of medical science zooms by, technologically advancing itself through non-invasive laser beam surgeries and MRI-reading iPads, doctors still harness (believe it or not) the ability to perform a basic physical exam. You can see a cirrhotic liver worsening by the yellowing of someone’s eyes and feel a lung consolidation through distinct vibrations on their back. That’s why it’s hard to imagine that with so much of medicine relying on keen observation skills, problems like starvation, physical wasting and burns or cuts on the skin could be so easily missed.

This week, researchers from Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital have proven this inconsistency true. In a study of over 1,400 teenagers with eating disorders, researchers found that almost 40 percent of teens surveyed admitted to inflicting self harm. Even more shocking is the fact that doctors missed almost 50 percent of these double-injury cases.

"We ask 97 percent of children 12 years and up if they smoke cigarettes; we need to get that good with screening for self-injurious behavior," said the study's lead author, Dr. Rebecka Peebles in the press release.