Clinical Problem Solving

Although all students are welcome to watch lectures, attempt assignments, and participate in discussions, it is strongly recommended that students have an academic or professional background in medical terminology and physical diagnosis. The weekly assignments will ask students to apply the concepts and principles taught in this course to various diseases, syndromes, and diagnoses; however, detailed information about medical terminology and disease states will not be taught in the course. Please read the "Recommended Readings" section below for information on outside resources that will be useful for completing assignments for all students. All students, regardless of their background, are encouraged to use a medical textbook to help accurately complete course assignments.

Course Objectives

At the conclusion of this course, students will have the ability to:

Understand how doctors and other medical professionals use patient's complaints to accurately determine diagnoses
Accurately process patient symptoms to prioritize possible diagnoses
Successfully use Illness Scripts as a method for organizing patient symptoms
Recognize patterns and apply these pattern-recognition skills to refine decision making and prioritize among different diagnostic possibilities
Correctly interpret diagnostic tests and use diagnostic tests to refine your prioritized diagnosis
Understand biases and errors that may lead to poor decision making and practice a strategy for uncovering biased decisions