RT Book, Section
A1 Beer, Laurence
A1 Golub, Lucas
A1 Smith, Dustin T.
A2 McKean, Sylvia C.
A2 Ross, John J.
A2 Dressler, Daniel D.
A2 Scheurer, Danielle B.
SR Print(0)
ID 1137605362
T1 Diagnostic Reasoning and Decision Making
T2 Principles and Practice of Hospital Medicine, 2e
YR 2017
FD 2017
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071843133
LK accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1137605362
RD 2024/04/19
AB Diagnosis  is  the  art  of  identifying  a  disease  by  the  signs,  symptoms,  and  test  results  of  a  patient.  Diagnosis  stems  from  the  Greek  word,  diagignoskein,  which  means  to  distinguish  or  discern.  Indeed,  the  ability  to  distinguish  or  discern  a  patient’s  underlying  illness  is  critical  to  being  an  effective  clinician  as  a  hospital  medicine  provider.  In  many  cases,  hospitalized  patients  may  be  quite  complicated  with  multiple  competing  possible  reasons  to  explain  their  underlying  signs  or  symptoms.  Patients  do  not  always  read  textbook  (ie,  they  may  not  always  describe  their  symptoms  or  have  findings  on  exam  that  are  pathognomonic  or  as  classically  described).  Therefore,  diagnostic  reasoning  and  diagnostic  decision  making  are  crucial  skills  for  hospital  medicine  providers.  In  addition,  cognitive  biases  exist  and  diagnostic  errors  occur  when  there  is  any  mistake  or  failure  in  the  diagnostic  process  that  leads  to  a  misdiagnosis,  a  missed  diagnosis,  or  a  delayed  diagnosis.  This  chapter  will  discuss  diagnostic  reasoning  and  diagnostic  decision  making.