Clinical Reasoning Toolkit
Basics of Clinical Reasoning
Get an introduction into clinical reasoning by browsing our curated list, highlighting the top academic articles, multimedia, and resources.
Research in clinical reasoning: past history and current trends
Geoff Norman
Opinion piece providing insights into the clinical reasoning process through three broad research traditions: 1) the reasoning process, 2) knowledge and memory, and 3) mental representations.
Clinical Reasoning
Geoff Norman
A good starter video to learn about clinical reasoning from a physician who researches expert diagnostic reasoning.
The New Diagnostic Team
Mark Graber
A founder of the field of diagnostic error prevention proposes that diagnosis is a team effort, and discusses how effective teamwork aids the diagnostic process.
Clinical Problem Solving (Coursera)
Catherine Lucy
A comprehensive video set on clinical thinking, drawing on many concrete examples, as taught by UCSF's vice dean for education who is renowned for her grounding in the learning sciences.
A Universal Model of Dx Reasoning
Pat Croskerry
An engaging description of Croskerry's rationality-based approach to decision-making, including System 1 and System 2 decision-making, and the interactions between the systems.
Educational Strategies to Promote Clinical Dx Reasoning
Judith Bowen
Trying to help a struggling learner? This article assists in diagnosing problems involved in clinical reasoning and provides helpful coaching strategies that can be implemented immediately.
The Causes of Errors in Clinical Reasoning: Cognitive Biases, Knowledge Deficits, and Dual Process Thinking
Geoffrey Norman, et al.
A counterpoint to dual process theory, this article reviews literature which suggests that both Type 1 and Type 2 processes contribute to errors, and that strategies directed at the recognition of bias are less effective than the reorganization of knowledge.
Cognitive interventions to reduce diagnostic error: a narrative review
Mark Graber, et al.
This review identifies interventions that might reduce the likelihood of errors.
Educational strategies to reduce diagnostic error: can you teach this stuff?
Mark Graber
How can medical novices transition to diagnostic expertise? This classic article helps educators support the development of reasoning and provides useful diagram examples of illness scripts.
Medical Decision-Making
Harold Sox, et al.
This “go-to” textbook presents a step-by-step guide to understanding how, through the processes of decision analysis, a physician can reach valid, reasoned conclusions about medical treatment despite imperfect information about the patient.
The Science of the Art of Medicine
John Brush (iBook available on iTunes)
Providing simple examples, visual explanations, and historical context, this book shows readers how to think clearly about the logic, probability, and cognitive psychology of medical reasoning to help make better probability estimates in clinicians' daily work.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
How do cognitive biases affect us as humans? This book lays the groundwork broadly across life.
Learning Clinical Reasoning
Jerome Kassirer, John Wong, and Richard Kopelman
This seminal book explains the chief components of the clinical reasoning process and discusses cognitive error in medicine. The second section contains 69 cases in which clinicians "think out loud" about diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas, and the authors critique these clinicians' reasoning.
Bonus: Also tune in early to hear CNN Anchor Jake Tapper and his daughter Alice Paul Tapper share their personal experience living through the trauma of Alice’s 2021 medical misdiagnosis.
Join us for the conference’s keynote featuring CNN Anchor, Jake Tapper and his daughter Alice Paul Tapper as they share their personal experience living through the trauma of Alice’s 2021 medical misdiagnosis. Immediately following is the SIDM 2023 Patient Summit: Celebrating Patient-Initiated Innovations in Improving Diagnosis, an annual event that is created by patients for patients, bringing together hundreds of individuals and groups from the diagnostic safety community. The SIDM2023 Patient Summit features three organizations who have proven that educated and engaged patients can and will make a significant impact on improving diagnosis of medical conditions that have been historically delayed or under-diagnosed.