Taming de SRU - April 9, 2015
"We are in a thinking profession.
An outsider looking in on our profession may see procedures and action as the defining characteristics of the practice of Emergency Medicine. But, reflecting on the attributes of the best EM docs I’ve worked with, their procedural excellence isn’t what stands out. Thinking back on the great physicians I have met and worked with, the ones I strive to be like every day, it is their ability to think, lead, and educate that sticks with me the most...
But, how do we go about learning cognitive biases (also termed cognitive errors, also termed cognitive dispositions to respond)? Well, you could go to the wikipedia page that has an extensive listing of biases and learn one per day… for the next 165 days.. . To best learn these cognitive biases, we need to situate them and tie them to real world clinical experiences. Croskerry outlined a process to do just that termed a “cognitive autopsy.” In the podcast below, the process of this autopsy is outlined and an example clinical case, rife with cognitive biases, is presented by Dr. Ryan Gerecht."