TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Chapter 5. Evidence-Based Clinical Decision Making A1 - Wilson, Mark C. A1 - Henderson, Mark C. A1 - Smetana, Gerald W. A2 - Henderson, Mark C. A2 - Tierney, Lawrence M. A2 - Smetana, Gerald W. Y1 - 2012 N1 - T2 - The Patient History: An Evidence-Based Approach to Differential Diagnosis, 2e AB - Clinical decision making is laced with uncertainty, and efficiently sorting out an underlying diagnosis as the cause of a patient's ailment can be difficult. Novice clinicians may attempt a stepwise assessment of all possible explanations for a patient's concerns until finally arriving at the diagnosis. More seasoned clinicians make use of extensive clinical experience, pattern recognition, and a range of approaches to save patients from the potential delays, risks, and costs of inefficient diagnostic strategies. The wisest clinicians seek out best evidence from clinical research and use it to complement their clinical experiences.1 In this chapter, we introduce the concepts of differential diagnosis, pretest probabilities, and test performance characteristics to bolster our abilities to make diagnoses. SN - PB - The McGraw-Hill Companies CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/04/19 UR - accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=56850503 ER -