Medical Problem Solving

Abstract

This essay reviews the origins, findings and influence of the monograph Medical Problem Solving: An Analysis of Clinical Reasoning. Majorfindings of the monograph are reviewed in the light of subsequent work and the results of selected studies of clinical cognition are related to the book's conclusions, thus sketching the growth of this field of research in the decade since publication. Several remaining methodologicalproblems and scholarly issues in the field are discussed, including: sampling cases and subjects, the definition of medical expertise, the role of verbal report in analyzing thinking, the level of clinical realism needed in research, and the relation of informationprocessing approaches to more quantitative approaches such as behavioral decision theory and social judgment theory.