Introduction

Within this website is an entire curriculum of text, videos and interactive lessons that are designed to assist student clinicians in acquiring expertise in clinical reasoning. The curriculum begins at the level of novice stage learners in medicine and advances in complexity and rigor as the curriculum progresses. This curriculum is a contribution to the clinical reasoning revolution that is well underway in medical education. Previously, medicine was taught in way that rigidly separated preclinical from clinical education. In the training model (what I call the relic model) of medical learning…quote from diss. The clinical reasoning revolution occurred in part as a response to the public health crisis of preventable medical errors$^{3}$. The problem of medical errors : Misdiagnosis and the need for improved training models in clinical reasoning. the problem of medical errors: Misdiagnosis and the need for improved training models in clinical reasoning

  1. Structured knowledge approach
    1. Use of frameworks, the matrices, for building and extending a replete mental repertoire of clinical problems.
    2. Use of illness script diagrams to develop a structured knowledge of diseases and conditions. This structuring of knowledge will prime the learner for more advanced illness script acquisition throughout their training and practice. Coded into the structure of the illness script diagrams are elements that will act as cognitive forcing strategies to ensure that: 1. Learner’s develop an approach to problems and conditions that “format” their thinking in ways that leads to proficiency in illness script development.
    3. An additional benefit of the illness script diagram offered here is standardization. As educators turn toward strategies to improve clinical reasoning, quandaries over basic concepts arise. A discussed in Frameworks (Olson) To be sure, others have proposed various types of illness script representations, many with great benefit (clinical reasoning website).
    4. learners develop the skill of formulating an effective differential diagnosis, including UPOs and can’t miss diagnoses; they are also prompted to recognize any diagnostic pitfalls of particular problems or conditions.
  2. Problem-based clinical reasoning vignettes and cases
  3. High risk condition/problem highlights
  4. Curriculum is developed and delivered in a way that is mindful of the learner's stage of development.

The Matrix of Medicine