CLIN Introduction to Clinical Examination

Question 1

Incomplete pattern

Answer 1

Incomplete pattern – do not have full picture/all details

Question 2

Atypical pattern

Answer 2

Atypical pattern – presents like a condition (e.g., Bells Palsy may be misinterpreted as stroke or vice versa).

Question 3

Premature closure

Answer 3

Premature closure – arriving at a conclusion based on the available evidence (which may be insufficient/incomplete – w/out considering additional or alternative diagnoses).

Question 4

Anecdotal knowledge

Answer 4

Anecdotal knowledge – bias due to previous experience (where anecdotal knowledge from another patient is confused with personal knowledge gained from current/new patient).

Question 5

Available knowledge/Availability error

Answer 5

Available knowledge – is knowledge gained due to training (where specialists are particularly at risk of making errors when they use available knowledge – as it is highly specific)

Question 6

Countertransferance

Answer 6

Countertransferance – positive/negative feeling towards a patient

Question 7

Halo effect

Answer 7

Halo effect – having different expectations of a patient on the bases of some unrelated personal characteristic

Question 8

Attribution error

Answer 8

Attribution error – where a problem is attributed to another, usually stigmatising condition (e.g., patient presents with chest paint with Hx of anxiety and chest pain is attributed as a symptom of this, rather than heart attack…).

Question 9

Commission bias

Answer 9

The need to do something (make a diagnosis, order a test, start management).

Question 10

Transference

Answer 10

How the pt feels towards you (as the doctor).

Question 11

Diagnostic momentum

Answer 11

A preferred diagnosis is made generally on the basis of an incomplete pattern. Test results & information are generally used only to confirm the preferred diagnosis (rather than excl. other possibilities).

Question 12

Yellow flags vs red flags

Answer 12

Yellow flags are psychosocial barriers to recovery –they are indicators suggesting an increased risk of progression to long term pain, disability and distress.
Red flags are signs and symptoms obtained from the patient’s history and or physical examination that indicate a possible serious underlying condition requiring further urgent medical intervention.