BMJ  2007;334 (21 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.39189.594178.BD

Editor's Choice

Editor's choice

Straight thinking

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In this week's Lesson of the Week, a glitch with a handheld computer caused a sick baby to get seven times the right dose of noradrenaline (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39104.625903.80). But, according to a new book by Jerome Groopman reviewed this week (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39184.586725.59), most medical mistakes are down to the way we think and not how we use technology. "Attribution errors," "availability thinking," "anchoring," "diagnosis momentum," "search satisfaction," and "vertical line thinking"—you may not like the jargon, but you'll almost certainly recognise the behaviour it describes and the types of mistake that can follow. Groopman calls for us to put technology (and evidence based medicine) in its place and to get back to the patient's story.

Technology has no place when it comes to making the crucial distinction between delirium and dementia, say John Young and Sharon Inouye in their Clinical Review (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39169.706574.AD). There's no test for . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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Leave the well alone!

BM Hegde
bmj.com, 20 Apr 2007 [Full text]