Unveiling the Potential of Venn Diagrams as a Helpful Tool for Clinical Reasoning: An Illustrative Case-based Discussion

Abstract

Venn diagrams graphically represent a cognitive approach that can assist in highlighting information shared by different data sets while eliminating nonoverlapping conditions. When applied to clinical reasoning, such an approach helps physicians visually focus on data pertaining to differential diagnoses. We present and discuss a 3-step reasoning pathway derived from a real-life case in which we used Venn diagrams to diagnose drug-related pneumonitis in a 67-year-old man with advanced bladder cancer and nodular lung findings at chest CT. This education paper supports using Venn diagrams in Radiology.