Challenges in Diagnostic Medicine

💻 Delivered Virtually

📅May 25, 2021

Presenter:
Sandra Monteiro

on behalf of Jonathan Sherbino

Objectives:
By the end of this session, participants will be able to identify at least one strategy for reducing diagnostic error in practice.

The Problem:
Diagnostic Medicine constantly adapts to changing population health, societal needs, technology, and medical knowledge. Additionally, research on the cognition of the individual clinician has highlighted important relationships between prior experience and diagnostic skill, resulting in useful models of expert performance. Using these models, there are several education strategies for developing diagnostic skills in novices. 

The Gap:
Yet there remain growing concerns about the rate of diagnostic error. Reports on different types of diagnostic error focus attention on practicing clinicians; senior medical residents and staff. We need better continuing education strategies for these ‘senior’ trainees.

The Hook:
We will first explore classic research to highlight the main sources of diagnostic error and then present some emerging research on strategies to improve the effectiveness of diagnostic medicine in practice.

The Takeaway:
Decades of research have focused on describing the cognitive processes of a single clinician identifying a diagnosis. It is time to focus on a systems wide approach to the continued development of practicing clinicians in order to have the biggest impact on error rates.