Main description:

With hospital medicine growing rapidly in both scale and complexity, the learning curve for students is steeper, while experienced physicians are often called upon to act as mentors and caregivers in areas outside their primary fields of expertise. Becoming a Consummate Clinician, an exciting new book in the series Hospital Medicine: Current Concepts, describes in practical terms how clinicians and students can think more critically and act more insightfully in this era of information expansion and time compression. Developed for hospital-based clinicians and physicians-in-training, the book provides a road map for navigating key challenges in real-life medical practice related to assessing, integrating, and presenting clinical information.
Clearly formatted and easily accessible, the book: * Fully integrates and emphasizes error avoidance and reduction * Highlights uses and limitations of algorithmic and evidence-based medicine in medical decision-making * Details effective strategies for looking and re-looking at biomedical data * Explains essential do s and don ts of medicalpractice, from patient history and exam to differential diagnoses * Describes best practices and pitfalls of gathering, processing, and communicating medical information * Presents strategies for attending physicians to develop the critical thinking skills of their trainees Featuring real-world clinical examples, this concise, down-to-earth text is written to help both practitioners and students improve their overall clinical performance, and learn to communicate effectively with members of the caregiving team.

Contents:

Preface ix Acknowledgments xi INTRODUCTION: SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN WARD WORLD 1 PART 1 MEDICAL MUSTS AND MUST-NOTS: SIX ESSENTIALS OF WARD WORLD 1 HOW (NOT) TO PRESENT A PATIENT HISTORY 13 2 REEXAMINING THE PHYSICAL EXAM 37 3 HOW (NOT) TO ORDER AND PRESENT LAB TESTS 67 4 SEEING IS (ALMOST) BELIEVING: THE IMPORTANCE OF REVIEWING DATA 81 5 "WORSTS FIRST": HOW TO FRAME A DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS 93 6 CLINICAL QUERIES: ASKING THE 31/2 KEY QUESTIONS 103 PART 2 MEDICAL MASTERIES 7 E = MC3: ERROR REDUCTION EQUALS MOTIVATION TIMES COMMUNICATION TO THE POWER OF 3 115 8 EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE: WHAT AND WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE? 131 9 CAUTION! DANGEROUS BIOMEDICAL SEMANTICS AT WORK 145 10 SOME SECOND OPINIONS: OUTLIERS, HOOFBEATS, AND SUTTON S (FLAWED) LAW 165 11 A SIXFOLD PATH: FROM DATA TO KNOWLEDGE TO UNDERSTANDING 173 12 WHAT IS DISEASE? WHAT IS HEALTH? 181 Bibliography and Notes 195 Index 203