WWWWF:Just What the Doctors Got Ordered
Good advice for physicians
About seeing the big picture
Physicians should caution themselves to be not so ready to match a patient's symptoms and clinical findings against their mental templates or clinical prototypes. This is no easy. In medical school, and later during residency training, the emphasis is on learning the typical picture of a certain disorder, whether it is a peptic ulcer or a migraine or a kidney stone. Seemingly unusual or atypical presentations often get short shrift ... Another echoing maxim on rounds: "When you hear hoofbeats, think about horses, not zebras."