[Analyses of deaths can provide meaningful learning]

Learning based on deceased patients has provided medicine with substantial knowledge and is still a source of new information. The basic learning approach has been autopsies, but focus has shifted towards analysis of registry data. This article evaluates different ways to analyse the natural deaths, including autopsies, audits, clinical databases and hospital standardised mortality ratios in regard of clinical learning. We claim that data-powered analysis cannot stand alone, and recommend that clinicians should organise multidisciplinary theoretically based audits, in order to keep learning from the deceased.