Does a suggested diagnosis in a general practitioners' referral question impact diagnostic reasoning: an experimental study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Diagnostic errors are a major cause of preventable patient harm. Studies suggest that presenting inaccurate diagnostic suggestions can cause errors in physicians' diagnostic reasoning processes. It is common practice for general practitioners (GPs) to suggest a diagnosis when referring a patient to secondary care. However, it remains unclear via which underlying processes this practice can impact diagnostic performance. This study therefore examined the effect of a diagnostic suggestion in a GP's referral letter to the emergency department on the diagnostic performance of medical interns.

Methods

Medical interns diagnosed six clinical cases formatted as GP referral letters in a randomized within-subjects experiment. They diagnosed two referral letters stating a ma

SUBMITTER: Staal J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8991944 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature