{"id":1390,"date":"2016-07-07T08:30:11","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T12:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/?p=1390"},"modified":"2016-06-28T15:29:43","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T19:29:43","slug":"could-i-be-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/could-i-be-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Could I be wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Physician overconfidence is thought to be one contributing factor to diagnostic error, and occurs when the relationship between accuracy and confidence is mis-calibrated.1\u00a0<\/sup>The relationship between diagnostic accuracy and confidence is still indefinite, but it is hypothesized that if confidence and accuracy are aligned, then appropriate levels of confidence could cue physicians to deliberate further or seek additional diagnostic help.2<\/sup><\/p>\n

A recent study by Meyer and colleagues, aimed at evaluating the relationship between physicians\u2019 diagnostic accuracy and their confidence, found that physician confidence was related to how often they requested a critical additional resource. Additionally, the study found that diagnostic accuracy decreased when physicians were faced with more difficult cases, while confidence decreased only slightly with difficult cases. They noted that diagnostic tests were requested less often when confidence level was higher, regardless of whether or not that confidence was correctly employed. \u201cIn essence, physicians did not request more second opinions, curbside consultations, or referrals in situations of decreased confidence, decreased accuracy, or when diagnosing difficult cases.\u201d3<\/sup> The findings from this study suggest that physicians might not request the required additional resources when they most need it.<\/p>\n

Students are often so sensitive to criticism that they are reluctant to give any to their colleagues. This is one area where the culture of medicine can be improved. By using feedback from others and self-reflection, we may be able to improve our diagnostic reasoning.<\/p>\n

We are taught to think that everything needs to be rechecked and reconsidered when it comes from an outside source. But what if we turned that clinical skepticism inward? When you are right, you are going to save lives and figure out the\u00a0patient\u2019s\u00a0problem. When this happens, it\u2019s always going to be a wonderful thing. But how many more<\/em> times can we get it right if we make it a habit to ask ourselves, \u201chow could I be wrong here?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Benham said, \u201cYour greatest weakness is often the overextension of your greatest strength.\u201d Essentially, when a strength is over-extended, you get breakdown. But when a strength is turned into a stretch, and you\u2019re flexible enough to bend, you will not break. Take time to occasionally step back from a difficult case, consult a textbook or run a different test, and make sure you are solving the correct problem. Mistakes will happen. When errors occur, acknowledge them, discuss them with colleagues and the patient, make efforts to correct it, and move on. In medicine, where the consequences of shortcomings and misjudgments can be dire, we can all benefit from encouraging more of these types of discussions.<\/p>\n

References:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Berner ES, Graber ML. Overconfidence as a cause of diagnostic error in medicine.\u00a0Am J Med<\/em>. 2008;121(5)(suppl):S2-S23.<\/li>\n
  2. Graber ML, Berner ES, Suppl eds.\u00a0Diagnostic Error: Is Overconfidence the Problem? http:\/\/www.amjmed.com\/issues?issue_key=S0002-9343%2808%29X0007-5<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  3. Meyer, Ashley N. D., Velma L. Payne, Derek W. Meeks, Radha Rao, and Hardeep Singh. “Physicians\u2019 Diagnostic Accuracy, Confidence, and Resource Requests.” JAMA Internal Medicine JAMA Intern Med 173.21 (2013): 1952.<\/li>\n
  4. Schiff GD. Minimizing diagnostic error: the importance of follow-up and feedback. Am J Med. 2008;121(5)(suppl):S38-S42.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Featured image:
    \nsuperhero by snapp3r<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Physician overconfidence is thought to be one contributing factor to diagnostic error, and occurs when the relationship between accuracy and confidence is mis-calibrated.1\u00a0The relationship between diagnostic accuracy and confidence is still indefinite, but it is hypothesized that if confidence and accuracy are aligned, then appropriate levels of confidence could cue physicians to deliberate further or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":1393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15,11],"tags":[363,364,365,362],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1390"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1397,"href":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390\/revisions\/1397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themspress.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}