Effects of information gathering and experience on the diagnosis of difficult problems by General Practitioners
Olga Kostopoulou1, Brendan Delaney1, Craig Munro1, Jurriaan Oudhoff1, Radhika Nath1, Clare Harries2
1 University of Birmingham
2 University College London

This programme of work aimed to identify predictors of diagnostic accuracy in primary care with a view to developing recommendations for diagnostic training and support. Seven realistic and rich-in-detail scenarios were constructed and presented to 84 GPs differing in experience, to diagnose. Using a process tracing approach, participants’ information gathering was recorded; following diagnosis, stimulated recall was performed on selected scenarios. The talk will focus on how the scenarios were constructed, how the standards for assessing performance (information gathering and accuracy) were derived, and on the potential role of hypothesis generation as a determinant of both information gathering and diagnostic accuracy.

Decision-making as an observable skill: Studies in a surgical simulator
Nick Sevdalis1,2, Shabnam Undre1, Mary Koutantji1, Rosamond Jacklin1, Ara Darzi1, and Charles Vincent1
1 Imperial College London, UK
2 National Patient Safety Agency

Although the surgical community has traditionally recognised the role of sound surgical decision-making in safe and effective surgical care, the first relevant empirical studies appeared in the literature only recently. In this talk, we shall firstly describe the evolution of thinking about surgical decision-making in the context of surgical skill and performance. Then we shall describe empirical work carried out with surgical trainees using aviation-styled simulators, in which decision-making was assessed alongside other skills. The talk will cover comparisons of decision-making with other observable skills (including surgeons’ technical performance), comparisons between surgeons’ and other operating theatre staff’s decision-making, and, finally, comparisons between self- and expert assessment of decision-making.

Registration required:

No

Free:

Yes