🚀 go-pugleaf

**********************************************************************
*                                                                    *
*                                                                    *
*                                                                    *
*                 CASE-BASED REASONING IN MEDICINE                   *
*                                                                    *
*                                                                    *
*                                                                    *
*                       KATHRYN HUNTER, PhD.                         *
*                                                                    *
*       Professor, Medical Ethics and Humanities and of Medicine,    *
*       CoDirector of the Medical Ethics and Humanities Program      *
*                Northwestern University Medical School              *
*                                                                    *
*                     kmhunter@merle.acns.nwu.edu                    *
*                                                                    *
*                                                                    *
*                      "Don't Think Zebras"                          *
*            Paradoxical Injunctions in Clinical Reasoning           *
*                                                                    *
*                     2:30 PM, Wednesday, November 16                *
*                        276 Ryerson Hall                            *
*                      1100 E. 58th Street                           *
*                      Chicago, Illinois                             *
*                                                                    *
*                                                                    *
**********************************************************************


                            Abstract

Medicine's practical wisdom is expressed in old saws, "clinical
pearls," rules of thumb, almost every one of which is contradicted by
a rule of thumb, a clinical pearl, or an old saw of equal weight and
counterforce.  That basic tenet of clinical medicine, "When you hear
hoofbeats, don't think zebras," is the most compact of these,
reminding us of unlikely possibilities even as it counsels us to not
think of them.  Other aphorisms, set out in counterbalanced pairs, are
equally paradoxical or contradictory bits of advice that have as their
aim a judiciously balanced application of scientific knowledge to an
individual patient.  Transmitted in tug-of-war fashion in a field
where every general rule seems to have its exception, they make up a
complex pattern of diagnostic and therapeutic wisdom concerning
history-taking, the physical examination, diagnostic reasoning, and
therapeutic choice--all topics vital to the quality of clinical care.
They are an essential part of a counterweighted method of teaching the
young and reminding the experienced in a case-based domain of
knowledge.

Background reading:
 "There was this one guy . . .":  Anecdotes In Medicine
   in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 29 (1986), 619-30
(ascii text format) is available.

By email:
To: listproc@cs.uchicago.edu
Subject: <blank line>
get cbr-med hunter
--

By anonymous ftp:
 cs@uchicago.edu
 pub/discussions/cbr-med/FTP/hunter

Or, see the Web page:
http://cs-www.uchicago.edu/~berger/hunter.html

This talk is part of a series focused on the use of case-based
reasoning in medicine. For a schedule of the autumn portion of the
series: 

Email:
To: listproc@cs.uchicago.edu
Subject: <blank line>
get cbr-med speakers-aut94
--

Or, see the Web page:
http://cs-www.uchicago.edu/~berger/speakers.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information: Jeff Berger <berger@cs.uchicago.edu>
--
--
Jeff Berger			       |USmail:	Ryerson 256
berger@cs.uchicago.edu	               |	Artificial Intelligence Lab
PH: (312) 702-8584		       |	1100 East 58th Street
FX: (312) 702-8487                     |        University of Chicago
WWW http://cs-www.uchicago.edu/~berger |        Chicago, IL  60637