Using the same word to mean different things (e.g., using "man" to mean humankind and later to mean man as opposed to "woman")
Allowing Time for Reflection
Teaching students how to use critical thinking skills shifts teaching from a model that largely ignores thinking to an approach that renders it pervasive 43 When content is didactically taught, it is treated as static and students are unlikely to question or think it through. They tend to rely on rote memorization without grasping the logic, supporting evidence and application of what they are trying to memorize. Students who learn through a critical thinking process truly learn content. At every level, students need to learn how to:
Ask questions precisely, define contexts and purposes, pursue relevant information, analyze key concepts, derive sound inferences, generate good reasons, recognize questionable assumptions, trace important implications, and think empathetically within different points of view (p. 20). 44
Critical thinking is difficult and requires overt practice using a variety of learning activities across the dental curriculum. It is also important to recognize the role that reflection plays in its development. Students need time to think about what they are learning and reflect upon that information. However, what they are learning must have an impact on their feelings in order for critical thinking to occur.
Emotions and Critical Thinking
The role of emotion in learning to use critical thinking skills is yet another area that necessitates research inquiry. As Zull suggests, if we want students to retain concepts we must allow them to put things into their own words, verbally and in writing. 45 Give students time to think before speaking and better construct ideas in their own words. Processing information takes time; stating one's thinking correctly also takes time. If a student cannot do this alone, we can give him or her the opportunity to discuss questions with others. Giving students time to reflect is giving them time to make connections.
Zull explains the process that takes place within the brain. First, the sensory cortex receives sensory input or concrete experiences. Next, the back integrative cortex tries to create meaning and images during the human process of reflection. The frontal integrative cortex is responsible for short-term memory and problem solving, making decisions and language, and making judgments and evaluations. This activity is akin to how learners handle abstractions-manipulating images and language to create new mental arrangements. The motor cortex triggers all coordinated and voluntary muscle contractions. This matches with the action that completes the learning cycle-actively testing abstractions and converting ideas into physical actions. The brain visualizes items in small amounts and all information arrives at the same time, producing an outline of objects and features in the visual field. 46 Thus, the brain can fully see great detail and nuance. Converting ideas into images helps students learn. Images enhance recall and aid in discovery. Sometimes the best teaching is just showing the student how.
To ensure that students learn, educators need to limit the amount of information they give. Instructors should limit or condense to three or four pieces the amount of information they want students to process.
The amygdala is responsible for screening experiences. 47 If something is recognized as dangerous, the amygdale will instinctively cause the body to "freeze." When a student first encounters something new, he or she may have a somewhat negative reaction. The instructor needs to find a way for the student to move into a more positive emotional territory. 48 Making suggestions or showing examples can remind the student what he or she already knows, and then the student can hang newly acquired knowledge on that "scaffolding." The support given by the instructor allows the student some level of success. Recognizing his or her success helps the student feel more hope, interest, and curiosity. At this point, the student is able to assume more control of the learning process. Boyd (2002) concurs and states, "emotions ... constantly regulate what we experience as reality." She also points out, "The limbic system plays an important role in processing emotion and memory and therefore appears to be important in the transfer of short-term memory into long-term memory." 49 Engaging students emotionally and actively strengthens memory.
Teaching students to use CTS during instruction
There is some empirical evidence that a four-year undergraduate experience contributes to modest gains in overall CT. However, there is little scientific evidence that a single course, other than a critical thinking skills course makes a positive measurable difference. 50 Even in the case of a specific CTS course, the evidence is mixed. 51
Recent studies show that limited efforts to infuse critical thinking in instruction can lead to improved scores on the Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level Z, a test that is aimed at a sophisticated audience and measures six common critical thinking skills. 52 Allegrettti and Frederick (1995) reported pre- to post-test gains on the Cornell Z for a group of college seniors (n = 24) who took a capstone integrated psychology and philosophy course. 53 Solon (2001) found that a partial treatment group of psychology students (n = 26) improved their scores on the Cornell Z compared to a group of untreated humanities students (n = 26). The results were statistically significant (beyond .001). In 2003, Solon studied three groups to compare coursework effects and reported that the full treatment group (n = 25) significantly outscored both the partial (n = 25) and non-treatment (n = 25) groups on the Cornell Z test. 54 Solon (2007) reported that a group of introductory psychology students (n = 25) received a moderate infusion of critical thinking skills (10 hours instruction and 20 hours homework). Compared to the non-treatment group (n= 26), the experimental group significantly improved their scores on the Cornell Z test. 55 These findings suggest that even a moderate infusion of critical thinking skills instruction can result in enhanced reasoning skills without requiring a significant investment from the instructor. 56
Collins and Onwuegbuzie reported significant relationships between overall CTS and achievement in a graduate level research methodology course at the midterm (r = .34, p < .01) and final (r = .26, p < .01) stages. 57 Onwuegbuzie compared the CTS of master's and doctoral level students. He reported that doctoral level students (n = 19) obtained statistically higher overall CTS using the California Critical Thinking Skills Test than the masters' degree students (n = 101, t = -3.54, p < .01). The effect size (d = 0.92) associated with this difference was extremely large. 58
Teaching CTS requires instruction that uses higher order taxonomic skills. These skills require student demonstration or teacher usage of behaviors classified as analysis, evaluation, and creation (levels 4, 5, and 6 on Bloom's revised taxonomy). When teaching takes place at higher levels of learning, lower order behaviors such as remembering, understanding, and applying are subsumed within instruction. The following table lists behaviors common at each level of learning and examples of related dental education activities.
Table 6. Revised Bloom's Taxonomy, Sample Verbs, and Related Learning Activities 59
Taxonomic Levels from Highest to Lowest | Sample Verbs | Dental Learning Activity |
Level 6-Creating | Synthesize, organize, deduce, plan, present, arrange, blend, create, devise, rearrange, rewrite | A prosthodontics patient, age 62, has two fixed mandible bridges that have deteriorated over the last two years due to poor hygiene. These bridges now need replacement. You are a recent dental graduate in practice with two senior partners. The senior partners suggest taking impressions and replacing the fixed bridges. You have read the recent literature on dental implants and would offer the patient this option. You also recognize that implants are more appropriate to the patient's needs and that over time they represent a cost savings. However, the senior partners are not really familiar with state of the art information about implants. Develop a plan for responding to the senior partners inwhich you provide an evidence-based rationale for suggesting the use of dental implants. |
Level 5-Evaluating | Critique, defend, interpret, judge, measure, test, select, argue, award, verify | Two patients, aged 18 months and 10 years, have cleft palate. Neither patient has been seen by health professionals or treated for this condition until now. Based on a complete summary of the dental, medical, social, and psychological health of each child, develop a treatment plan using authoritative and credible sources. |
Level 4-Analyzing | Determine, discriminate, form, generalize, categorize, illustrate, select, survey, take apart, transform, classify | A 32-year-old white male arrives at your office and presents with pain and swelling over the "upper right canine tooth" for the past three days. His medical history is remarkable for GERD, for which he takes Prilosec daily, and a penicillin allergy (rash over his torso and fever after taking Keflex). Your exam reveals intraoral and extra oral swelling over tooth #6. A radiograph reveals radiolucency with caries under the crestal bone (nonrestorable). What are your concerns? How would you treat and prescribe? |
Level 3-Applying | Convert, demonstrate, differentiate between, examine, experiment, prepare, produce, record, discover, discuss, explain | After completing textbook readings about the basics of periodontology, explain with images the progression of periodontal disease from the perspective of pathogenesis. Choose lay terms appropriate for use with a patient. |
Level 2-Understanding | Differentiate, fill in, find, group, outline, predict, represent, trace, compare, demonstrate, describe | State four or five reasons that rubber dam isolation is essential during endodontic procedures. |
Level 1-Remembering | Define, distinguish, draw, find, match, read, record, acquire, label, list | From a list of 10 options, choose the five items associated with a periodontic pocket. |
Making Critical Thinking Explicit
Teaching for critical thinking is a rational and intentional act. Typically, instructors cannot suddenly decide to teach CTS and develop an appropriate learning activity. An instructor must have a clear understanding of what CTS is, how it is implemented during instruction, and what strategies should be used during particular classroom and predoctoral clinical learning activities. Developing a repertoire of well-honed CTS activities appropriate to your specific discipline is advisable.
Also crucial to the teaching of CTS is an educator announcing to students he or she will teach CTS, how he or she intends to do so, and what will be required of the students as learners. It is important to have an explicit conversation with students about what CTS is, what it looks like, and how educators will model it so students can differentiate the teaching of CTS from lower level learning. Effective teaching of university-age students is characterized by collegial and collaborative processes, not instruction that is ambiguous. In ambiguous instruction, the learner does not know what to expect next or have a clear understanding of what behavioral or skill changes he or she should demonstrate as a result of teacher-student interaction. Teaching explicitly helps ensure that less re-teaching will be necessary. Both teachers and students know their responsibilities as instructors and learners.
Stages of Critical Thinking
Paul and Elder claim that individuals progress through predictable stages of unreflective, challenged, beginning, practicing, advanced, and master thinking. 60 They state that unless educators help students develop an intellectual vocabulary for discussing their thought processes and challenge them to identify the problems in their thinking, the students' cognitive processes will remain invisible to them. The implication for curriculum development: If instructors want students to develop critical thinking skills, then critical thinking must be integrated into the foundations of instruction.
It is also important to recognize that when patient care is task focused, it can obscure the bigger picture and become a barrier to the development of critical thinking skills. Individual personality, background, and position might also limit one's ability to think critically. Additionally, gender, age, religion, and socioeconomic status might influence the development of critical thinking skills. One of the biggest barriers to the development of CTS is our educational system. Although it is important to recognize these attributes as potential barriers, it is more important that dental educators establish the kind of learning environments that will foster the development of CTS.
Case #2-Why Are Mrs. Connor's Teeth Yellow?
Mrs. Connor, a 74-year-old white female, comes to your office as a new patient. She presents you with a complaint that her teeth have become yellowed and unattractive. Her husband died one year prior, and since then she has been drinking 8-10 cups of coffee daily. Her internist diagnosed anemia and high blood cholesterol. She is taking iron and Lipitor. She feels better since she began taking Lipitor, but feels her teeth are too yellow. She recently met a widower who invited her to dinner next week. She is worried about the appearance of her teeth.
Teachers must recognize that not all students will apply critical thinking skills at the same rate they learn these skills. Thus, instructional methods and objectives need to match students' cognitive and experiential abilities while trying to stretch students to their growing edge. 61 Students' capacity for self-directed learning (SDL), which is required to implement reflective judgment, underlies many of the critical thinking skill dispositions. 62 There is evidence that the students who routinely use the "learn by doing" approach to explore problems develop more sophisticated SDL than students in lecture-based curricula. 63 The reflection element of critical thinking is considered essential to clinical judgment. 64 Tanner asserts that using the skills associated with reflective thinking prepares students for ill-structured or ambiguous problems that they are likely to encounter in clinical practice. 65
Problem-based learning (PBL) is a popular instructional strategy for promoting collaboration and reflection and negotiating different and individual constructions of knowledge. Some researchers assert that PBL is best used when problems are unsolvable or when they generate many individual constructions of knowledge that appear valid. 66 However, using only problem-based learning to teach critical thinking skills may not be enough. This instructional strategy does not necessarily equip students with the ability to analyze or critique a given situation or the information with which they are been provided. A variety of instructional strategies that give students the opportunity to think aloud, role play, prioritize alternatives, communicate conclusions effectively, simulate, or defend the logical basis of their thinking is recommended to foster students' ability to use critical thinking.
Asking students to apply their understanding of dental and medical knowledge to treatment planning and diagnosis is not an example of CTS. However, asking students to determine differential diagnoses of caries and periodontal disease among patients at various stages of lung cancer requires the ability to reason and justify particular treatment plans or demonstrate critical thinking skills. Habits of the students who demonstrate critical thinking are:
(a) | Making logical inferences | |
(b) | Offering opinions with reasons | |
(c) | Evaluating | |
(d) | Grasping principles | |
(e) | Classifying | |
(f) | Making criteria-based judgments | |
(g) | Making evidence-based decisions | |
(h) | Reflexivity |
Case #3-Female with Erythroplakia
Mrs. Jacklin, a 40-year-old female, presents you with a history of SLE and erythroplakia on the left lateral border of the tongue. She states she is experiencing a burning sensation on her tongue. She asks why she is having this discomfort and what she can do to make the sore on her tongue go away. The oral exam shows that Mrs. Jacklin has poor oral hygiene and mild dry mouth (xerostomia) but is otherwise not in danger for oral health concerns.
Critical thinking is not :
(a) | Applying what you have learned in decisionmaking and treatment planning | |
(b) | Keeping students awake, interested, and motivated | |
(c) | Linear or step-by-step thinking |
Critical thinking cannot be taught in a learning environment where the dental educator always lectures, tells students what ought to be undertaken during patient treatment, or shows students how to do a procedure correctly. Some habits of students who do not use critical thinking skills are:
(a) | Disorganization (in thought processing, preparation, and behaviors) | |
(b) | Overly simplistic thinking ("I had enough information. There was no need to ask for additional information.") | |
(c) | Use of unreasonable criteria ("If my belief is sincere, evidence to the contrary is irrelevant.") | |
(d) | Erratic use of facts (Looking only at the area of interest, he offered biased interpretations of the radiographs.) |
Critical thinking skills can be developed with frequent practice and the use of ill-structured problems and situations that require the ability to recall useful knowledge quickly, use pattern recognition, discern pertinent information, think ahead, and anticipate outcomes and problems while remaining composed so that emotions do not hinder decisionmaking skills. However, it is important to recognize CTS do not develop spontaneously or with maturation. Since strong personality components underlie CT dispositions, what happens if students admitted to colleges of dentistry do not already possess these traits?
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By Will Erstad on 01/22/2018
No matter what walk of life you come from, what industry you’re interested in pursuing or how much experience you’ve already garnered, we’ve all seen firsthand the importance of critical thinking skills. In fact, lacking such skills can truly make or break a person’s career, as the consequences of one’s inability to process and analyze information effectively can be massive.
“The ability to think critically is more important now than it has ever been,” urges Kris Potrafka , founder and CEO of Music Firsthand. “Everything is at risk if we don’t all learn to think more critically.” If people cannot think critically, he explains, they not only lessen their prospects of climbing the ladder in their respective industries, but they also become easily susceptible to things like fraud and manipulation.
With that in mind, you’re likely wondering what you can do to make sure you’re not one of those people. Developing your critical thinking skills is something that takes concentrated work. It can be best to begin by exploring the definition of critical thinking and the skills it includes—once you do, you can then venture toward the crucial question at hand: How can I improve?
This is no easy task, which is why we aimed to help break down the basic elements of critical thinking and offer suggestions on how you can hone your skills and become a better critical thinker.
Even if you want to be a better critical thinker, it’s hard to improve upon something you can’t define. Critical thinking is the analysis of an issue or situation and the facts, data or evidence related to it. Ideally, critical thinking is to be done objectively—meaning without influence from personal feelings, opinions or biases—and it focuses solely on factual information.
Critical thinking is a skill that allows you to make logical and informed decisions to the best of your ability. For example, a child who has not yet developed such skills might believe the Tooth Fairy left money under their pillow based on stories their parents told them. A critical thinker, however, can quickly conclude that the existence of such a thing is probably unlikely—even if there are a few bucks under their pillow.
While there’s no universal standard for what skills are included in the critical thinking process, we’ve boiled it down to the following six. Focusing on these can put you on the path to becoming an exceptional critical thinker.
The first step in the critical thinking process is to identify the situation or problem as well as the factors that may influence it. Once you have a clear picture of the situation and the people, groups or factors that may be influenced, you can then begin to dive deeper into an issue and its potential solutions.
How to improve: When facing any new situation, question or scenario, stop to take a mental inventory of the state of affairs and ask the following questions:
When comparing arguments about an issue, independent research ability is key. Arguments are meant to be persuasive—that means the facts and figures presented in their favor might be lacking in context or come from questionable sources. The best way to combat this is independent verification; find the source of the information and evaluate.
How to improve: It can be helpful to develop an eye for unsourced claims. Does the person posing the argument offer where they got this information from? If you ask or try to find it yourself and there’s no clear answer, that should be considered a red flag. It’s also important to know that not all sources are equally valid—take the time to learn the difference between popular and scholarly articles .
This skill can be exceedingly difficult, as even the smartest among us can fail to recognize biases. Strong critical thinkers do their best to evaluate information objectively. Think of yourself as a judge in that you want to evaluate the claims of both sides of an argument, but you’ll also need to keep in mind the biases each side may possess.
It is equally important—and arguably more difficult—to learn how to set aside your own personal biases that may cloud your judgment. “Have the courage to debate and argue with your own thoughts and assumptions,” Potrafka encourages. “This is essential for learning to see things from different viewpoints.”
How to improve: “Challenge yourself to identify the evidence that forms your beliefs, and assess whether or not your sources are credible,” offers Ruth Wilson, director of development at Brightmont Academy .
First and foremost, you must be aware that bias exists. When evaluating information or an argument, ask yourself the following:
The ability to infer and draw conclusions based on the information presented to you is another important skill for mastering critical thinking. Information doesn’t always come with a summary that spells out what it means. You’ll often need to assess the information given and draw conclusions based upon raw data.
The ability to infer allows you to extrapolate and discover potential outcomes when assessing a scenario. It is also important to note that not all inferences will be correct. For example, if you read that someone weighs 260 pounds, you might infer they are overweight or unhealthy. Other data points like height and body composition, however, may alter that conclusion.
How to improve: An inference is an educated guess, and your ability to infer correctly can be polished by making a conscious effort to gather as much information as possible before jumping to conclusions. When faced with a new scenario or situation to evaluate, first try skimming for clues—things like headlines, images and prominently featured statistics—and then make a point to ask yourself what you think is going on.
One of the most challenging parts of thinking critically during a challenging scenario is figuring out what information is the most important for your consideration. In many scenarios, you’ll be presented with information that may seem important, but it may pan out to be only a minor data point to consider.
How to improve: The best way to get better at determining relevance is by establishing a clear direction in what you’re trying to figure out. Are you tasked with finding a solution? Should you be identifying a trend? If you figure out your end goal, you can use this to inform your judgment of what is relevant.
Even with a clear objective, however, it can still be difficult to determine what information is truly relevant. One strategy for combating this is to make a physical list of data points ranked in order of relevance. When you parse it out this way, you’ll likely end up with a list that includes a couple of obviously relevant pieces of information at the top of your list, in addition to some points at the bottom that you can likely disregard. From there, you can narrow your focus on the less clear-cut topics that reside in the middle of your list for further evaluation.
It’s incredibly easy to sit back and take everything presented to you at face value, but that can also be also a recipe for disaster when faced with a scenario that requires critical thinking. It’s true that we’re all naturally curious—just ask any parent who has faced an onslaught of “Why?” questions from their child. As we get older, it can be easier to get in the habit of keeping that impulse to ask questions at bay. But that’s not a winning approach for critical thinking.
How to improve: While it might seem like a curious mind is just something you’re born with, you can still train yourself to foster that curiosity productively. All it takes is a conscious effort to ask open-ended questions about the things you see in your everyday life, and you can then invest the time to follow up on these questions.
“Being able to ask open-ended questions is an important skill to develop—and bonus points for being able to probe,” Potrafka says.
Thinking critically is vital for anyone looking to have a successful college career and a fruitful professional life upon graduation. Your ability to objectively analyze and evaluate complex subjects and situations will always be useful. Unlock your potential by practicing and refining the six critical thinking skills above.
Most professionals credit their time in college as having been crucial in the development of their critical thinking abilities. If you’re looking to improve your skills in a way that can impact your life and career moving forward, higher education is a fantastic venue through which to achieve that. For some of the surefire signs you’re ready to take the next step in your education, visit our article, “ 6 Signs You’re Ready to Be a College Student .”
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published in December 2012. It has since been updated.
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Will Erstad
Will is a Sr. Content Specialist at Collegis Education. He researches and writes student-focused articles on a variety of topics for Rasmussen University. He is passionate about learning and enjoys writing engaging content to help current and future students on their path to a rewarding education.
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Ludovico furlan.
1 Department of Clinical Sciences and Community Health, University of Milan, Milan Italy
2 Department of Internal Medicine, General Medicine Unit, IRCCS Ca’ Granda Foundation, Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan Italy
Giorgio costantino.
3 Department of Anaesthesia—Intensive Care Unit, Emergency Department and Emergency Medicine Unit, IRCCS Ca’ Granda Foundation Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan Italy
In recent years, the Choosing Wisely and Less is More campaigns have gained growing attention in the medical scientific community. Several projects have been launched to facilitate confrontation among patients and physicians, to achieve better and harmless patient‐centered care. Such initiatives have paved the way to a new “way of thinking.” Embracing such a philosophy goes through a cognitive process that takes into account several issues. Medicine is a highly inaccurate science and physicians should deal with uncertainty. Evidence from the literature should not be accepted as it is but rather be translated into practice by medical practitioners who select treatment options for specific cases based on the best research, patient preferences, and individual patient characteristics. A wise choice requires active effort into minimizing the chance that potential biases may affect our clinical decisions. Potential harms and all consequences (both direct and indirect) of prescribing tests, procedures, or medications should be carefully evaluated, as well as patients’ needs and preferences. Through such a cognitive process, a patient management shift is needed, moving from being centered on establishing a diagnosis towards finding the best management strategy for the right patient at the right time. Finally, while “thinking wisely,” physicians should also “act wisely,” being among the leading actors in facing upcoming healthcare challenges related to environmental issues and social discrepancies.
Content List – This is an article from the symposium: “When is too much too much and too little too little: Scientific evidence of limited workup”.
A 43‐year‐old woman with scleroderma was admitted to the Emergency Department (ED) complaining of fever and abdominal pain in the left upper quadrant. The attending physician performed an abdominal ultrasound examination that was negative. Blood exams showed significantly elevated C‐reactive protein so a urinary tract infection was suspected. Intravenous ciprofloxacin treatment was started. After 24 h, the patient felt much better, she had no pain nor fever and was discharged with the indication to continue oral antibiotic therapy. The next day, the patient returned to the ED complaining of pain at the forearm where the peripheral vein access had been placed. Superficial phlebitis was noticed and the physician in charge decided to perform a bedside ultrasound that showed thrombosis of the antecubital vein. Treatment with fondaparinux for a week was started. The patient was discharged in good clinical conditions; however, the following day, the patient was admitted again to the ED for a severe headache. The head computed tomography scan showed a cerebral hemorrhage, and she was transferred to the neurosurgery ward.
As shown by this simple but dramatic clinical case, even the most trivial and innocent medical decision may have catastrophic consequences. This is the reason why any intervention we perform (treatment or test) must be preceded by relevant clinical questions. Looking back at our case: (a) was the peripheral venous access necessary? (b) Was the ultrasound examination appropriate? (c) Was the consultation with the thrombosis specialist needed? (d) Was anticoagulant therapy appropriate? No single step of the diagnostic strategy was absolutely incorrect, but a cascade of small clinical decisions snowballed into dramatic and unexpected consequences.
The call for action inspired by Brody in 2010 [ 1 ] led to the creation of the Choosing Wisely (CW) campaign, an initiative of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation (ABIM) launched in 2012 that was immediately followed by the seminal article by Grady and Redberg, “Less is More” [ 2 ], calling for a shift from the traditional paradigm “more care is better” towards care tailored to the patient's needs.
The main mission of this campaign was the promotion of conversations between clinicians and patients by helping patients to choose care that is supported by evidence, not duplicative of other tests or procedures already received, free from harm and truly necessary. This was pursued through the publication of hundreds of “top 5 lists,” created by medical societies from 25 different countries, listing unnecessary or overused medical procedures, tests, or treatments, all based on recent evidence and good medical practice. Several studies testing the efficacy of the campaign in reducing medical waste and side effects have been performed or are ongoing [ 3 , 4 , 5 ].
However, in our opinion, CW represents an even broader and general concept expanding the borders of healthcare and medical decisions to include a new “way of thinking” that is more respectful not only of patients but of all economic and environmental resources. To choose wisely is to choose consciously and conscientiously. We would like to propose here a “medical” revisitation of the Cartesian philosophical concept “ Cogito ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am), which would sound, rephrasing St Augustine, like “Dubito, ergo sum [medicus]” (I doubt, therefore I am [a physician]).
Constantly enlarging healthcare systems, where the number of actors involved and the complexity of the relationships between them keeps increasing, tends to generate automated and impersonal clinical decisions. We wish for physicians to reacquire a central role in patient management, tailoring choices to their specific patients and involving them in the decisional process.
In the present review, we will discuss the fundamental issues hindering our capabilities to choose wisely, such as the difficulty in dealing with uncertainty, the fear of making errors, and the pitfalls of the evidence‐based approach, and we will discuss a possible roadmap to help modify our way of thinking and to overcome what is holding us back from doing so (Fig. 1 ).
Clinical reasoning—no single choice of performing tests or initiating treatment should be made without considering all the factors involved. Each test serves the purpose of increasing or reducing our probability of a diagnosis to help us choose, together with our patients, whether starting treatment could be beneficial.
Uncertainty.
Medicine is a highly inaccurate scientific field compared to other disciplines such as engineering or computer science [ 6 ]. The most accurate tests we use during a diagnostic workup boasts of a sensitivity and sensibility that is lower than 90%, leaving a great margin of error even when no human effort is involved [ 7 , 8 ]. Similarly, the most effective therapies for commonly encountered illnesses do not assure treatment success, even when given promptly [ 9 ].
The minimization of uncertainty in clinical decision making has become central to biomedical research over the past 50 years, driving the development of evidence‐based medicine (EBM), with millions of articles published every year.
However, the more knowledge is accumulated the more we perceive the differences in each clinical condition presented, in the underlying mechanisms and mostly, in each patient we meet [ 10 ]. The more we know, the more we understand how little of what we know is actually applicable to every single case. The concept seems obvious as this is one of the better‐known postulations of Western philosophy, as expressed by the Socratic motto “I know that I know nothing” [ 11 ], but in our hypertechnological and specialistic era, sometimes we tend to forget about this concept and dismiss it.
The feeling that an outcome can be predicted leads to a sense of security that is, unfortunately, often based on wrong assumptions. As William Osler said, “medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability.” Uncertainty can make the physicians uncomfortable and communicating uncertainty to patients can feel like letting them down and not being able to predict what is happening to them. While it can be true that patients feel safer and more satisfied knowing their doctor is certain about the evolution of their condition [ 12 ], being able to communicate uncertainty can, in the long term, lead to an improvement in the patient–doctor relationship and trust [ 13 ].
Embracing uncertainty does not represent a rejection of EBM but instead supports its best use. As soon as we accept the hindrance that precludes us to be 100% accurate in our predictions, we can start implementing this type of thinking into practical skills of evaluating a situation and describing it to our patients. The probability of a response to therapy can be expressed as a numerical range with a qualitative estimate rather than a single number. For most diagnostic tests, we should emphasize that the result can only increase or diminish the probability of a diagnosis based on the likelihood ratio of the test, and cannot provide a definitive answer [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Thus, to better engage our patients, shared decision making, using the best available evidence as a tool, should be implemented [ 17 ], as when faced with hard choices, our patients may feel that their physician will be with them, no matter what the future holds.
Not all clinical research is good research [ 6 ]. EBM aims for the idea that healthcare professionals should make conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in their everyday practice. EBM uses systematic reviews of the medical literature to evaluate the best evidence on specific clinical topics. This is the first and easiest to apply step, called “evidence synthesis.”
Selecting treatments and procedures based on updated evidence strikes as the best to provide the best care available for a patient. This can be held only if the supporting scientific evidence is of good quality and extrinsically applicable to the patients we are currently treating. Blindly applying results of clinical trials can be extremely dangerous, and therefore even guidelines should be considered critically and not as an unquestionable Bible.
The amount of weakly designed studies, skewered analysis, and straight‐up false data that gets published each year is astounding. Some of these studies present data that lacks credibility so blatantly that they earned the name “zombie trials” [ 18 ]. Moreover, even if millions of papers get published every year, the publication record is only a small part of the unpublished research data existent, with an abundance of inconclusive or controversial results, never to be shared [ 19 ].
Registered clinical trials showing negative results (where the treatment tested showed no effect) are statistically less likely to be published, and even when published they usually take, on average, 1 year more to get released than trials with positive results. [ 20 , 21 ]. It was also proven that statistically significant studies may be cited more than negative studies on the same topic, increasing the bias [ 22 ].
Another critical issue is the abundance of multiple guidelines, from different societies, on the same topic, which often cites different articles and meta‐analyses supporting their recommendations, which are sometimes discordant with each other, without a clear reason to justify the discrepancies. In addition, they may be heavily influenced by “expert” dogma and only a few of the recommendations provided are based on level A evidence [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ].
Therefore, although being used to establish medical (and sometimes legal) standards of care, clinical guidelines are very far from being an unbiased and unequivocal tool. It's hard to imagine an improvement in the quality of research as long as financial conflicts of interest are associated with favorable recommendations of drugs and devices in clinical guidelines, advisory committee reports, opinion pieces, and even narrative reviews [ 27 ]. The Sars‐Cov‐2 pandemic worked like a magnifying glass in showing the limits and weaknesses of our research system. In the rush for publication, thousands of dubious papers have been released, only increasing the rampant confusion and despair that sprung in physicians forced to work without evidence [ 28 , 29 , 30 ].
Plenty of resources are currently available to improve doctors' ability to use EBM correctly, starting from critically reading manuscripts, comparing them to previously available data, all the way down to designing new trials that could improve patient outcome and satisfaction [ 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Critically approaching EBM means not stopping at the first step, that is, “evidence synthesis,” but rather continuing to the second one, which is “knowledge translation.” The evidence must be translated into practice by medical practitioners who select treatment options for specific cases based on the best research, patient preferences, and individual patient characteristics [ 34 ].
Medical errors are listed as the number three cause of death in the United States [ 35 ] and represent a huge cost in resources and a great risk for the unwilling patient finding himself a “victim” of the error. A wise choice requires active effort into minimizing the chance of making mistakes while considering that not all of them are predictable and thus preventable. Minimizing errors related to lack of knowledge , often only recognizable in hindsight (if not spotted at all) requires experience, continuous education, and update in the light of new available research and data. On the other hand, errors linked to inattention or carelessness could be reduced by investing in better work–life balance for healthcare providers, preserving enough good sleep, avoiding toxic workplace conditions, and supporting doctors' own mental and physical wellbeing [ 36 ].
In the last 30 years, medicine has tried to adopt tools and procedures from other fields to manage risks and minimize errors. For instance, the aviation safety procedures approach is often being used as a model to build up a safer healthcare system. While intrinsic limits are preventing the achievement of the same extremely high level of safeness [ 37 ], the use of checklists, personnel's fatigue risk management, and specialization training are all examples of features shared by both realities that improved avoidance of errors when implemented. [ 38 , 39 , 40 ]. One topic that was found to be lacking in doctors’ and interns’ apprenticeship, while well established in other professional activities, is “cognitive bias avoidance training.”
Cognitive biases (CB) are predictable, systematic patterns of deviation from the norm and/or rationality in judgment. The mind is prone to fall for these various cognitive traps especially while relying on heuristics, or mental shortcuts, using what is defined as “system 1” of cognitive process (as opposed to “system 2,” representing conscious analytical thoughts) [ 41 , 42 , 43 ]. The most commonly encountered CB in medicine include the anchoring effect and the confirmation bias (that could together be summarized as prematurely falling in love with a diagnosis), the gambler's fallacy (that makes it seem unlikely something will happen again if it recently happened many times), and the base rate neglect (overestimating or underestimating pretest probability when working up a diagnosis, skewing the Bayesian reasoning) but a long list of biases have been described and each one plays a role in increasing the risk for error making [ 44 , 45 ]. Pattern recognition is essential to clinical reasoning, especially in the context of emergencies, and one is easily tempted to think that these biases don't affect him, even if he can recognize them in others.
Learning to recognize and discuss the impact of cognitive bias from the early stage of medical education could significantly help avoid the consequences and costs of these mistakes [ 46 ].
What is important for the patients? When making choices, our perspective could be different from the patients’ and we should consider patients’ preferences and needs. What is important for us may be of limited value for the patient. Sharing our views and involving patients in decision making that is truly based on their needs should be a milestone when choosing wisely [ 47 ].
As physicians, we tend to make a diagnosis based on a disease‐centered point of view and then provide the best available cure. This may, nevertheless, be far from coinciding with what matters to the patient, particularly when multiple chronic conditions co‐exist [ 48 ]. For instance, from the perspective of a patient with chronic heart failure, the number of days spent at home may be a more accurate outcome for evaluating the quality of the provided cures rather than the rate of hospital admission [ 49 ]. Potentially, even the most extreme medical decisions may benefit from a positive confrontation. Is there any doctor that would raise doubts on the benefits of adrenaline in cardiac arrest? In a highly debated randomized controlled trial (RCT) published in New England Journal of Medicine on the use of epinephrine in out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest [ 50 ], the authors actively involved patients and the public in the planning and development of the trial. The study showed a benefit of epinephrine use on short‐term survival but no significant differences in survival with favorable neurologic outcomes. Interestingly, when the community was involved in defining the priority of outcomes, 95% of respondents prioritized long‐term survival with favorable neurological outcomes instead of short‐term survival. There are several resources that clinicians could use to inform their patients of the risk and benefits of treatments, tests, and procedures. In a recent meta‐analysis, patients exposed to decision aids for screening or health treatment decisions showed increased knowledge, while the accuracy of risk perceptions and congruency between informed values and care choices did not show differences in terms of health outcomes compared to controls [ 51 ]. Some patients may be keen to discuss potential therapeutic options while others prefer not to be involved in decision making [ 52 ].
Involving patients in decision making does not mean giving up responsibility but rather including personal preferences into the physician's final decision on the matter.
Each time we make a clinical decision such as prescribing a treatment or a test, we expect benefits for our patients, but we must keep in mind that with every choice we may cause harm. Most of the time, we acknowledge direct potential adverse events but hardly identify potentially indirect risks, the long term, and social consequences of our choices. Several studies indicate that patients consistently overestimate the benefits and underestimate risks of the screening procedure, tests, and treatments [ 53 ] and there is still uncertainty about how good physicians are at understanding and communicating to patients the benefits and harms of tests and procedures [ 54 , 55 ].
Each time we make a decision, we set in motion a chain of reaction of which we should be aware. Even the cheapest, low‐risk test can have tremendous consequences for patients and healthcare. In a recent study, the American College of Cardiology highlighted the importance of avoiding preoperative routine electrocardiogram (EKG) in low‐risk noncardiac surgery [ 56 ], including such recommendations among its Choosing Wisely top five list. In another study [ 57 ] on over 110,000 patients undergoing cataract surgery in the USA, 16% of those who received a preoperative EKG underwent a series of further testing that accounted for an extra cost of $565 per patient and $35 million without evidence of disease. Incidental findings account for the largest part of inappropriate testing. In a study conducted by the American College of Physicians, 90% of interviewed physicians reported a cascade of tests after incidental findings that caused significant psychological, financial, and even physical consequences for their patients [ 58 ]. Cancer screening through prostate‐specific antigen (PSA), which is now no longer advised, has been estimated to have caused between 2.9% and 88.1% of prostate cancer overdiagnosis [ 59 ]. These findings are just a tiny dot in a much bigger picture since limited data are available on the impact of overdiagnosis and overtreatment [ 59 ]. The proposed CW approach has the first downstream effect of increasing the safety of our patients, balancing the risks and benefits of each intervention at the single‐person level.
The physician should never stop asking himself: “Why am I prescribing this test/treatment to my patient? Am I fully aware of the consequences of the result on my next clinical decisions?”
Providing answers to our patients is a cognitive process passing through a critical appraisal of clinical information, checking the best available evidence, and considering the external factors involved (values, available resources, environmental factors, etc.). This clinical‐reasoning process should not just focus on providing a diagnosis. As brilliantly illustrated by a recent review on the subject by Cook et al. [ 60 ], reaching a diagnosis is not the final outcome a physician should seek; it is, in fact, the successful management of the patient. Nevertheless, most of the available literature focuses on the cognitive processes that lead ultimately to a diagnosis (diagnostic reasoning). Management reasoning, that is, the process of making decisions about patients’ treatment, follow up, need for hospitalization and resource allocation, is a less explored path with multiple aspects. Cook et al. [ 60 ] pointed out the main differences between the two approaches, as summarized in Table 1 . Focusing on patient management rather than reaching a diagnosis could possibly reduce overtesting and increase patient involvement in the decision process.
Diagnosis versus management
Diagnosis‐centered approach | Management‐reasoning approach |
---|---|
Primarily a classification task, assigned labels help clinicians understand the underlying condition and simplifies communication between peers and patients | Primarily a matter of prioritization focused on shared decision making, monitoring, and flexible planning |
A simpler, more direct approach | More complex requires greater experience and nonprofessional skills |
Gives (theoretical) definitive answers when a diagnosis is established | This leads to the development of multiple defensible options, with diversified outcomes |
Not influenced by values or preferences | Influenced by preferences, resources, values, and trammels of patients, physicians, and institutions |
A diagnosis can be made solely relying on data | A management plan requires interaction between the parties involved |
The struggle for a yes/no answer might lead to overtesting and an increased rate of false positives | Testing for which results would not change the management can be discouraged, reducing the risks involved with overdiagnosis |
Diagnosis is but a means to an end (that is proper management) and requires time to be made | Patient management starts with the first encounter with the clinicians and incorporates the (eventual) diagnosis in the decision‐making process, when available |
The cognitive process involved and the effectiveness of the method are well studied | Requires further studying of the cognitive mechanisms involved, will need RCT targeted at proving its effectiveness on patient‐relevant outcomes |
RCT, randomized controlled trial.
A practical example of the implications of using these two approaches is the management of patients with potential pulmonary embolism (PE). Several trials found a higher‐than‐expected prevalence of PE in patients admitted for syncope or exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the ED, suggesting a possible role for algorithms dedicated to the identification of PE in these groups of patients [ 61 , 62 ]. Further studies raised doubt on this potential approach. On one side, the study by Costantino et al. [ 63 ], collecting data from real‐world scenarios, concluded that not all patients warrant a diagnostic algorithm to exclude it, and the algorithm may increase false‐positive results and overtreatment, resulting in more adverse events. On the other side, the study by Jiménez et al. [ 64 ] on exacerbating COPD found no differences in terms of major clinical outcomes when randomizing patients for either standard care or an active strategy for diagnosing PE, showing how investing more into searching for a diagnosis might not be beneficial for patients.
We assume to treat every patient the same way and give everyone the same care, but is this actually happening?
Access to education, housing, food and water quality, as well as inequity in wealth distribution are among the main determinants of patients’ health and have been related to the development of several diseases. [ 65 , 66 ]. These factors must therefore be considered in the frame of preventive medicine. A conscious physician incorporates in his thinking process the needs of his community. The devastating effect of population inequities in terms of socioeconomic determinants of health was highlighted by the Sars‐Cov‐2 pandemic, with enormous differences in patient outcomes based on social status. [ 67 , 68 ]. We cannot afford anymore to ignore these discrepancies among our population of patients.
Social determinants strictly correlate with the resilience of a population in tackling health and safety challenges. In this respect, one of the biggest threats we will face in the upcoming years is the impact of climate change on global health.
The 2020 edition of the yearly Lancet Countdown report on Health and Climate Change [ 69 ] showed alarming data on the direct effects of rising temperatures, with a drastic increase in heat‐related death (+53% for people aged 65 and above in the last two decades), a rise in exposure to wildfires, aggravating heart and lung conditions [ 70 ], and the diffusion of unhealthy diets, increasing cardiovascular risk [ 71 ]. We must realize that the voice of healthcare professionals is essential in driving forward progress on climate change and realizing the health benefits of responding strongly to the issue. In this regard, we, as authors, strongly endorse the call for emergency action recently published by a large team of editors of some of the most important health journals worldwide [ 72 ].
As physicians, we must act not only as healthcare providers but also as citizens’ advocates.
Acquiring the mindset necessary to choose wisely is a learning journey where we recognize the actors in a play, share our knowledge, and act consequently. We should work to set in motion an educational process that, directly and actively, involves students, physicians, stakeholders, and the public. The discussion and acquisition of these concepts and critical thinking should start during the first years of training of medical students and trainees. Spreading these ideas to patients, and to a greater extent also to the general public, will benefit feedback and increase trust between the parts. And first and foremost, educating ourselves as physicians will allow us to transpose these conceptual cues to clinical practice, supporting more conscious and safer care.
To initiate this process, we think we should focus our educational interventions on the following issues (Table 2 ):
Steps towards choosing wisely
What stands between us and better care | Proposed solution | Possible benefits |
---|---|---|
Fear of uncertainty | ||
Cognitive biases | ||
Applying low‐quality evidence | ||
Overfocusing on diagnosis |
These primary steps will lead to a new way of thinking that will eventually allow the physician to get an advocate role within the society, trusted by the community as observers and reporters of the population's physical and mental wellbeing. Hence, acknowledgement of social discrepancies, environmental factors, and their role on global health will then become part of the clinical reasoning and the everyday practice of the physician of tomorrow.
The mission of the Choosing Wisely movement is not only to raise awareness in physicians of the risks of overdiagnosis and overtreatment but also to give the opportunity to rethink the way we treat patients.
Embracing such philosophy goes through tackling of several issues, including difficulty in dealing with uncertainty and medical errors, the limits of EBM, and shifting towards patient‐centered clinical reasoning focused on management rather than on diagnosis. Physicians should regain a central role in patient management and could be leading actors in facing upcoming healthcare challenges related to environmental issues and social discrepancies.
Thinking that doing more means doing better is perhaps a comfortable, but often dangerous, momentary lapse of reason.
The authors have no conflict of interests to declare.
Ludovico Furlan: conceptualization; data curation; investigation; resources; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing. Pietro Di Francesco: conceptualization; data curation; investigation; resources; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing. Nicola Montano: conceptualization; investigation; project administration; resources; supervision; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing. Giorgio Costantino: conceptualization; investigation; project administration; resources; supervision; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing.
The corresponding author attests that all listed authors meet authorship criteria and that no others meeting the criteria have been omitted.
Open Access Funding provided by Universita degli Studi di Milano within the CRUI‐CARE Agreement. [Correction added on 11 May 2022, after first online publication: Projekt CRUI‐CARE funding statement has been added.]
Furlan L, Francesco PD, Costantino G, Montano N. Choosing Wisely in clinical practice: embracing critical thinking, striving for safer care . J Intern Med. 2022; 291 :397–407. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
Ludovico Furlan and Pietro Di Francesco contributed equally to this manuscript.
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