Do physicians know when their diagnoses are correct? How likely are physicians to use diagnosis decision support systems?
In 2005 Charles Friedman looked at the alignment between the confidence physicians had in their diagnosis [subjective] and the correctness of the diagnosis [objective] 7. Residents & faculty (correctly diagnosed 44% and 50% of difficult cases, respectively) were overconfident, placing credence in a diagnosis that was in fact incorrect, in 15% and 12% of cases. The authors concluded “Even experienced clinicians may be unaware of the correctness of their diagnosis at the time they make them. DDSS designed to reduce diagnosis error, cannot rely exclusively on clinicians perceptions of their needs for such support”. Interfacing DDSS with EMR is likely to lower the threshold for physicians to use these systems. Isabel Isabel (Isabel Healthcare Inc, USA), a Web-based diagnosis reminder system is an award-winning, diagnosis decision support system designed by clinicians to enhance the quality of diagnosis decision making. For a given set of clinical features Isabel instantly provides a checkl
