Clinical Diagnosis

Clinical diagnosis is... well, what you thought medical school would be.

The paradox of this course is that it is required for graduation. The theme of the course, however, is that you have free will: you don't have to do anything in life except die. This course doesn't teach you what to think; it teaches you how to think. Specifically, it will teach you how to think like a physician. It will teach you to reason through patient data and make informed choices. After this course, you will be able to say, "I don't have to order that test, I choose to order that test."

In order to think like a physician, we will teach you the six domains of clinical reasoning. The course begins with an overview of the clinical reasoning process. Students are taught how to use the history of present illness to generate pre-test probabilities, and how to integrate physical exam and laboratory data to arrive at a conclusion. Throughout the year, you will receive lectures on physical diagnosis topics. You will be able to practice these physical diagnosis skills with standardized patients. You will develop your own style of practicing medicine by spending time with clinical preceptors in their day to day practice of medicine. The course will also help you with your written and oral communication skills. Finally, the course will teach you how to draw upon other physicians clinical experience to augment your own. You will be taught the fundamentals of biostatistics needed to interpret and evaluate the medical literature.

The teaching format for the course includes lectures, laboratory exercises, small group sessions and clinical correlations.

For more information, please see:

• The Clinical Diagnosis course website
  
• e-mail: Jeff Wiese, M.D.