White coats and fingerprints: diagnostic reasoning in medicine and investigative methods of fictional detectives

BMJ. 2005 Dec 24;331(7531):1491-4. doi: 10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1491.

Abstract

Current trends toward routine mass use of sophisticated diagnostic tools is killing off the science and art of clinical reasoning. An ideal clinician would present a harmonic fusion of almost all the investigative methods of fictional detectives and avoid slavish adherence to protocols and procedures

MeSH terms

  • Decision Making*
  • Forensic Sciences*
  • Literature, Modern
  • Medicine in Literature*
  • Observation / methods
  • Problem Solving