Update. Will some doctors stop taking notes on possible, severe, and unlikely diagnoses, interfering with the process of differential diagnosis?
The New Yorker
1 year agoThe Curious Side Effects of Medical Transparency
One afternoon not long ago, I sat entering notes into a patient's medical record.She was in her forties, and her labs showed anemia.The causes of anemia range from menstruation to cancer, and so pinpointing the correct underlying diagnosis is critical.Physicians are trained to formulate a full roster of possibilities, known as the differential diagnosis, and then to work down the list systematically.