Video: Every Case Tells a Story| Webinar: ACR/CHEST ILD Guidelines in Practice

An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

  • Conditions
    • Axial Spondyloarthritis
    • Gout and Crystalline Arthritis
    • Myositis
    • Osteoarthritis and Bone Disorders
    • Pain Syndromes
    • Pediatric Conditions
    • Psoriatic Arthritis
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • Sjögren’s Disease
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
    • Systemic Sclerosis
    • Vasculitis
    • Other Rheumatic Conditions
  • FocusRheum
    • ANCA-Associated Vasculitis
    • Axial Spondyloarthritis
    • Gout
    • Psoriatic Arthritis
    • Rheumatoid Arthritis
    • Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
  • Guidance
    • Clinical Criteria/Guidelines
    • Ethics
    • Legal Updates
    • Legislation & Advocacy
    • Meeting Reports
      • ACR Convergence
      • Other ACR meetings
      • EULAR/Other
    • Research Rheum
  • Drug Updates
    • Analgesics
    • Biologics/DMARDs
  • Practice Support
    • Billing/Coding
    • EMRs
    • Facility
    • Insurance
    • QA/QI
    • Technology
    • Workforce
  • Opinion
    • Patient Perspective
    • Profiles
    • Rheuminations
      • Video
    • Speak Out Rheum
  • Career
    • ACR ExamRheum
    • Awards
    • Career Development
  • ACR
    • ACR Home
    • ACR Convergence
    • ACR Guidelines
    • Journals
      • ACR Open Rheumatology
      • Arthritis & Rheumatology
      • Arthritis Care & Research
    • From the College
    • Events/CME
    • President’s Perspective
  • Search

How a Rheumatologist Thinks: Cognition and Diagnostic Errors in Rheumatology

Dennis J. Boyle, MD  |  Issue: November 2010  |  November 1, 2010

Unpacking principle: Providing a more detailed description of an event increases its judged probability.

Vertical line failure: Commonly known as “thinking inside the box,” an inflexible diagnostic approach that emphasizes economy, efficacy, and utility.

ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Zebra retreat: The tendency to not consider a particular disease because of its unfamiliarity.

Playing the odds: The tendency in ambiguous presentations to opt for a benign diagnosis on the basis that it is significantly more likely than a serious one.

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Posterior Probability: Occurs when a physician’s estimate for the likelihood of disease is unduly influenced by what has gone on before for a particular patient.

Visceral bias: The influence of affective sources of error on decision making.

Yin-Yang out: The tendency to believe that nothing further can be done to illuminate any definitive diagnosis so that the physician is let out of further diagnostic effort.

Premature closure: Focusing excessively on one disease because of one characteristic finding.

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 | Single Page
Share: 

Filed under:Professional Topics Tagged with:DiagnosisDiagnostic CriteriaErrorsQualityrheumatology

Related Articles
    Stmool / shutterstock.com

    How to Avoid Cognitive Errors in Rheumatology

    March 14, 2022

    The 1999 Institute of Medicine report To Err Is Human gave a sobering depiction of the magnitude and consequences of medical error.1 The report concluded that approximately 98,000 people die in hospitals annually due to preventable medical errors. Of all the errors detailed in this report, diagnostic errors have since been determined to be the…

    Learn to Navigate the Seas of Uncertainty in Rheumatology Training

    August 16, 2019

    Rheumatology is a field rife with uncertainty. With regard to both diagnosis and treatment, we live in a world of rare diseases that are difficult to study. As a result, we are often left without an answer to our diagnostic dilemmas and without clarity when deciding the best treatment options for our patients. For rheumatologists…

    Ethics Forum: A Physician’s Medical Error & the Patient’s Right to Know

    October 17, 2017

    Case Ms. A is an 82-year-old woman who presented to the rheumatology office for evaluation of osteoporosis. She had been diagnosed with postmenopausal osteoporosis at age 62 after sustaining a right wrist fracture. She was started on alendronate 70 mg weekly and reported medication compliance. At age 79, she sustained an atraumatic right femur fracture….

    Measuring & Preventing Diagnostic Errors

    September 11, 2020

    In a December 2019 editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the implications of diagnostic error were explored through the story of two parents, both medical professionals, who sought a diagnosis for their sick child.1 Their son saw specialist after specialist and underwent repeated procedures, but for years was left without an explanation…

  • About Us
  • Meet the Editors
  • Issue Archives
  • Contribute
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Copyright © 2025 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies. ISSN 1931-3268 (print). ISSN 1931-3209 (online).
  • DEI Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Cookie Preferences