Diagnostic error is common. The usual accepted rate is between 5% to 15% before the report July 2010 in PEDIATRICS that revealed 45% rate in 1362 pediatricians surveyed.
There are many reasons leading to a wrong diagnosis. One is failure to ask one or two critical questions because of the natural limitation of our brain to 7 to 9 items at a time. Another reason is lack of time because of many patients scheduled and emergencies.
Suppose you are seeing a nine year old boy with chronic abdominal pain. The differential diagnoses of this has at least 30 diseases or conditions. To rule in or out most of the diseases in the list, I have 17 scripted questions in my EMR. I have trained my assistants how to ask these questions which are mostly answered by YES or No.
Med Student’s Differential Diagnosis is a tool that show the different serious and less serious causes of each of the common symptoms in Pediatrics followed by the best questions to ask.
Each question is followed by a menu of the most likely possible diagnosis if answered YES.
When all of the questions are asked and answered, the most likely diagnosis will be formed in the mind of the physician.
With this differential diagnosis app, the chance of making a wrong diagnosis is reduced.
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