Browse the corpus

Horses and zebras: probabilities, uncertainty, and cognitive bias in clinical diagnosis. Medical diagnosis is typically an iterative process guided by integration and synthesis of data into a model of disease. However, facts are not the only inputs into this process. A case of medical mis-diagnosis is presented, in which systematic cognitive bias is considered to have played a role in generating error. Specific cognitive biases are cited, and measures that can be taken to minimize their negative impact are reviewed.