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Review
. 2018 Sep;48(3):225-232.
doi: 10.4997/JRCPE.2018.306.

Cognitive bias in clinical medicine

E D O'Sullivan  1 , S J Schofield  2
Affiliations
Review

Cognitive bias in clinical medicine

E D O'Sullivan et al. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Cognitive bias is increasingly recognised as an important source of medical error, and is both ubiquitous across clinical practice yet incompletely understood. This increasing awareness of bias has resulted in a surge in clinical and psychological research in the area and development of various 'debiasing strategies'. This paper describes the potential origins of bias based on 'dual process thinking', discusses and illustrates a number of the important biases that occur in clinical practice, and considers potential strategies that might be used to mitigate their effect.

Keywords: cognitive bias; diagnostic error; heuristics; interventions.

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Conflict of interest statement

No financial or competing interests declared

Comment in

  • Cognitive bias in laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
    Jolobe OMP. Jolobe OMP. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2019 Mar;49(1):92-94. doi: 10.4997/JRCPE.2019.119. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2019. PMID: 30839001 No abstract available.
  • Author's reply.
    Sullivan ED, Schofield SJ. Sullivan ED, et al. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2019 Mar;49(1):92-94. doi: 10.4997/JRCPE.2019.120. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2019. PMID: 30839002 No abstract available.
  • 'Working diagnosis' as a means to reduce cognitive bias.
    Sullivan SJ, Whyte MB. Sullivan SJ, et al. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2019 Jun;49(2):171-174. doi: 10.4997/JRCPE.2019.223. J R Coll Physicians Edinb. 2019. PMID: 31188356 No abstract available.

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