October 27th, 2011
The Art of Arriving at a Diagnosis
John E Brush, MD
A 55-year-old man came to the emergency room complaining of aching chest pain radiating to the back. The pain had started the day before and recurred several times. It seemed to worsen with exertion and resolve with rest. One resting episode was associated with diaphoresis. Exam, EKG, and cardiac enzymes were normal. A portable chest […]
October 5th, 2011
Does Intuition Lead to Bad Medical Decisions?
John E Brush, MD
Discussing how medical practitioners use intuition and cognitive shortcuts (heuristics) to make decisions can elicit strong reactions. Some people heartily agree that reflecting on their use is informative and helpful; others believe that to entertain this topic is to condone sloppy thinking and to renounce rationality and hard science. These critics are concerned that heuristic […]
September 19th, 2011
Decision-Making Shortcuts: The Good and the Bad
John E Brush, MD
How awareness of heuristics can affect your practice
September 5th, 2011
Base-Rate Neglect: A Common Clinical Fallacy
John E Brush, MD
Estimating probabilities subjectively can lead to indiscriminate testing.
August 25th, 2011
“Numbers Traps” in Clinical Practice
John E Brush, MD
As we make clinical decisions every day, we assess probabilities in a subjective fashion. And in doing so, we tend to fall into very predictable traps — traps we can get better at avoiding if we learn about how they ensnare us. That requires familiarizing ourselves with a bit of history. Several decades ago Casscells and […]
August 17th, 2011
How Cardiologists Think
John E Brush, MD
Today on CardioExchange, we launch a new mini-series of blog posts on decision making in cardiology. Dr. John E. Brush explores the conscious and unconscious mental strategies that cardiologists use in their everyday work and asks you to examine your own decision-making processes. The aim: to foster a rich dialogue about how we do what we […]
NEJM Journal Watch — Recent Cardiology Articles- Anticoagulation in Patients with Cancer-Associated Pulmonary Embolism: How Long is Long Enough?
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- Does Colchicine Reduce Cardiac Events After Myocardial Infarction?
- First-Line Therapy for Ventricular Tachycardia After MI: What's the Best Approach?