Case study: Adolescent female with arm pain (S7 Ep. 52)

The next case study in our series on cognitive bias in healthcare follows an obese adolescent female with arm and neck pain who felt unheard during the 4 prior emergency room visits that week.  Listen as the differential diagnosis takes on a completely different angle and the pressure of making the diagnosis goes sky high!  We will unpack additional forms of cognitive bias and 2 more best practices for avoiding diagnostic error in the clinical setting.  

References:

Hulens, M., Rasschaert, R., Vansant, G., Stalmans, I., Bruyninckx, F., & Dankaerts, W. (2018). The link between idiopathic intracranial hypertension, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome: exploration of a shared pathophysiology. Journal of pain research, 11, 3129–3140. https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S186878

Mondragon J, Klovenski V. Pseudotumor Cerebri. [Updated 2022 Sep 29]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK536924/

Norris, D., Clark, M. S., & Shipley, S. (2016). The Mental Status Examination. American family physician, 94(8), 635–641.

Phelan, S. M., Burgess, D. J., Yeazel, M. W., Hellerstedt, W. L., Griffin, J. M., & van Ryn, M. (2015). Impact of weight bias and stigma on quality of care and outcomes for patients with obesity. Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, 16(4), 319–326. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12266

The Canadian Medical Protection Authority. Common cognitive biases: Influences on decision making. Good Practices Guide. https://www.cmpa-acpm.ca/serve/docs/ela/goodpracticesguide/pages/human_factors/Cognitive_biases/common_cognitive_biases-e.html

Villines, Z. (2021). What to know about obesity discrimination in health care. Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/obesity-discrimination-in-healthcare