Diagnosis : interpreting the shadows

Description

"Despite diagnosis being the key feature of a physician's clinical performance, this is the first book that deals specifically with the topic. In recent years, however, considerable interest has been shown in this area and significant developments have occurred in two main areas : a) an awareness and increasing understanding of the critical role of clinical decision making in the process of diagnosis, and of the multiple factors that impact it, and b) a similar appreciation of the role of the healthcare system in supporting clinicians in their efforts to make accurate diagnoses. Although medicine has seen major gains in knowledge and technology over the last few decades, there is a consensus that the diagnostic failure rate remains in the order of 10-15%. This book provides an overview of the major issues in this area, in particular focusing on where the diagnostic process fails, and where improvements might be made."-- Read more... Abstract: "Despite diagnosis being the key feature of a physician's clinical performance, this is the first book that deals specifically with the topic. In recent years, however, considerable interest has been shown in this area and significant developments have occurred in two main areas : a) an awareness and increasing understanding of the critical role of clinical decision making in the process of diagnosis, and of the multiple factors that impact it, and b) a similar appreciation of the role of the healthcare system in supporting clinicians in their efforts to make accurate diagnoses. Although medicine has seen major gains in knowledge and technology over the last few decades, there is a consensus that the diagnostic failure rate remains in the order of 10-15%. This book provides an overview of the major issues in this area, in particular focusing on where the diagnostic process fails, and where improvements might be made." Content: Section I : Models of diagnosis -- What is diagnosis? / Karen Cosby -- Medical decision making / Karen Cosby -- Modern cognitive approaches to the diagnostic process / Pat Croskerry -- Section II : Informal and alternative approaches to diagnosis -- Alternatives to conventional medical diagnosis / Pat Croskerry -- Complementary and alternative medicine / Pat Croskerry -- Section III : The elements of reasoning -- Stone age minds in modern medicine : ancient footprints everywhere / Pat Croskerry -- Cognitive and affective biases, and logical failures / Pat Croskerry -- The rational diagnostician / Pat Croskerry -- Individual variability in clinical decision making and diagnosis / Pat Croskerry -- Section IV : Challenges and controversies in diagnosis -- Diagnostic error / Karen Cosby -- The role of the healthcare system in diagnostic success or failure / Karen Cosby -- Do teams make better diagnoses? / Karen Cosby -- How much diagnosis can we afford? / Karen cosby and Mark L. Graber -- Section V : The fix -- Medical education and the diagnostic process / Pat Croskerry -- Cognitive bias mitigation: becoming better diagnosticians / Pat croskerry -- Diagnostic support from information technology /Karen Cosby -- What is the patient's role in diagnosis? / Karen Cosby -- Appendix A. cognitive biases -- Appendix B. logical fallacies.