Medical Decision-Making and Medical Problem Solving

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

Medical Decision Making and Medical Problem Solving are two main approaches used to describe the cognitive processes underlying clinical diagnosis.(1) This distinction is the result of historical factors. A diagnosis is a statement about what disease someone has (http://www.macmillandictionary.com) based on symptoms (subjectively) and signs (objectively).(2) Medical decision making (MDM) models are concerned with diagnostic reasoning as an opinion revision process.(3) They make use of Bayes’ theorem, likelihood ratios, prior and posterior odds, thresholds, schemes and decision trees to arrive at the best diagnostic and therapeutic decisions. (1;3-7) These mathematical models, incorporating clinical epidemiological data, are related to the concept of evidence-based medicine. read more

System 1 and System 2

Wednesday, November 27th, 2013

System 1 and  System 2 refer to the psychological dual-process theories developed in  cognitive psychology which contrast analytical reasoning and non-analytical reasoning as two modes of knowing and thinking processes.(1;2) The system 1 or the non-analytical system (see also in this glossary) can be seen as a process leading rapidly to the selection of the preferred management options for the target condition.(3) The system 1 is implicit, based on automatic and effortless thought processes and is associative, intuitive and fast. Non-analytical, intuitive thinking is explained in terms of the high accessibility of the immediate thoughts(4). Non-analytical reasoning can be recognized both in medical decision-making and in medical problem-solving, for instance in automatic chance assessment processes and in pattern recognition(5). It acts unconsciously and is used most of the time by the health care experts for common conditions.(6) read more