文獻閱讀:哈里遜內科學第3章 臨床決策的認知模型

這章節是由Daniel B. Mark(Duke University Hospital)和John B. Wong(Tufts Medical Center)兩位醫師所合著的,在談論臨床推演思維,如此飄渺的主題談論得深入淺出,且把臨床的認知推演模型描述得非常清楚。
要如何定義一位臨床高手呢?(這篇的重點便在談論如何解構一位高手臨床醫師的思維,所以便需要起手來一個定義)
這個問題很難回答,目前也沒有很好的方法可以來做評比,實際上,的確會有少數臨床醫師常被當其他醫師遇到困難案例時作為諮詢對象,但這些臨床醫師高手也無法說清楚,且實際上臨床能力(clinical virtuosity)也無法一概而論,通常每位醫師都會有專精的地方,厲害的眼科醫師可能連簡單的血壓都不會處理,反之亦然。
當代在探討推演思維的模型最常使用所謂的dual-process theory來做,也就是系統一(快思考)和系統二(慢思考),這邊借用來架構臨床思維的推演,可以簡單把臨床上的認知思維模式分成快思考和慢思考兩類,這邊主要談論的是關於疾病診斷上的思維方式。
 系統一(Intuition)快思考,主要是由模式辨認(pattern recognization)所來,有可能造成所謂的premature closure,過早地對於病人的症狀做結論而忽略了可能的問題所在,模式辨認這種認知模式可以稱為heuristics(cognitive shortcut or rules of thumbs),可以簡單分成四類:
  • representativeness heuristics
    • 定義when assessing a particular patient, clinicians often weight the similarity of that patient’s symptoms, signs, and risk factors against those of their mental representations of the diagnostic hypotheses being considered.
    • 將看到的案例跟腦海中的舊案例比較後,取出較類似的案例出來
  • availability heuristics
    • 定義involves judgements based of how easily prior similar cases or outcomes can be brought to mind
    • 將看到的案例後,腦海中第一個跑出來的想法和案例
  • anchoring heuristics (conservatism or stickiness).
    • 定義 involved estimating a probability of disease and then insufficiently adjusting that probability up or down when interpreting new data about the patient
    • 將看到的案例,依照之前最常碰到的案例來處理和思考
  • simplicity heuristic
    • 定義use the simplest explanation possible that will accout adequately for the patient’s symptoms or findings
    • 用最簡單的方式來解釋

除了套用簡單的認知模型來解釋系統一在臨床上演繹的種類,認知科學家發現臨床醫師在面對複雜問題時,會採用分析推演的方式(Analytic reasoning processess),或者稱作Hypothetico-dedutive model,藉由不斷假設,然後推翻,經過一連串所謂的"Diagnostic imperatives",是常使用的策略來面對那些不常發生的診斷或是確立最終問題根源的方式(所以常會在SOAP中看到需要rule out 什麼,這便是一種所謂的Hypothetico-dedutive model)。

資深臨床醫師常會將資料分成幾組,且儲存在工作記憶,用此來做各種分類和模式辨認。醫師通常藉由刻意的建立大群相互關聯的知識網,來提高其對於各類症狀、機制等等的連結。
Elaborate conceptual networks of memorized information or models of disease to aid in arriving at their conclusions. expertise involves an increased ability to connects symptoms, sign, and risk factors to one another in meaningful ways, relate those findings to possible diagnoses, and identify the additional information necessary to confirm the diagnosis.
未來的醫師更有機會且更容易接觸大量的資料,但能不能因此而快速成為專家等級的臨床醫師,還是需要花時間建立自己的external internalized database of knowledge and experience not available to novice.
increased attention is now being paid to understand how best to adjust group-level clinical evidence of treatment harms and benefits to account for the absolute level of risks faced by subgroups and even individual patients, using validated clinical risk scores.