Home Medicine How insight contributes to diagnostic excellence
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

How insight contributes to diagnostic excellence

  • Taro Shimizu EMAIL logo and Mark Graber
Published/Copyright: June 8, 2022

Abstract

In the quest to improve diagnosis, a great deal of attention has already been focused on how to optimize clinical reasoning, and the importance of System 1 and System 2 processing. In this essay we consider the role of ‘insight’, a relatively overlooked pathway for arriving at the correct diagnosis. Insight refers to spontaneous emergence of the correct answer at some later point in time. We discuss factors that might facilitate insight, and how these could be incorporated into the diagnostic process.


Corresponding author: Taro Shimizu, Dokkyo Medical University, Kitakobayashi 880, Mibu, Shimotsuga-gun, Tochigi, 321-0297, Japan, Phone: 81 28 286-1111, E-mail:

  1. Research funding: None declared.

  2. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.

  4. Informed consent: Not applicable.

  5. Ethical approval: Not applicable.

References

1. Institute of medicine. Crossing the quality chasm: a new health system for the 21st century. Washington (DC): National Academies Press; 2001.Search in Google Scholar

2. Yang, D, Fineberg, HV, Cosby, K. Diagnostic excellence. JAMA 2021;326:1905–6. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.19493.Search in Google Scholar PubMed

3. Committee on diagnostic error in health care; board on health care services; institute of medicine; the national academies of sciences E, and medicine. Improving diagnosis in health care, Balogh, EP, Miller, BT, Ball, JR, editors. Washington (DC): National Academies Press; 2015.Search in Google Scholar

4. Klein, G. Seeing what others don’t: the remarkable ways we gain insights. New York: Public Affairs; 2013.Search in Google Scholar

5. Shimizu, T, Tokuda, Y. Pivot and cluster strategy: a preventive measure against diagnostic errors. Int J Gen Med 2012;5:917–21. https://doi.org/10.2147/ijgm.s38805.Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

6. Shimizu, T. Horizontal and vertical tracing: a cognitive forcing strategy to improve diagnostic accuracy. Postgrad Med 2020;96:581–3. https://doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-2020-137548.Search in Google Scholar PubMed

7. Shimizu, T. The art and strategy of diagnostic medicine. Tokyo: Igaku Shoin; 2014. (Japanese).Search in Google Scholar

8. Garland, C. Cubie DX. https://cubiedx.org/, 2020.Search in Google Scholar

9. Wallas, G. The art of thought. New York: Hartcourt Brace; 1926.Search in Google Scholar

10. Dijksterhuis, A, Strick, M. A case for thinking without consciousness. Perspect Psychol Sci 2016;11:117–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615615317.Search in Google Scholar PubMed

11. Mamede, S, Schmidt, H, Rikers, R, Custers, E, Splinter, T, van Saase, J. Conscious thought beats deliberation without attention in diagnostic decision making: at least when you are an expert. Psychol Res 2010;74:586–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-010-0281-8.Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

12. Vadillo, M, Kostopoulou, O, Shanks, D. A critical review and meta-analysis of the unconscious thought effect in medical decision making. Front Psychol 2015;6:636. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00636.Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

13. Woolley, A, Kostopoulou, O, Delaney, B. Can medical diagnosis benefit from “unconscious thought”. Med Decis Making 2016;36:541–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989x15581352.Search in Google Scholar PubMed

14. Karlsen, B, Hillestad, TM, Dysvik, E. Abductive reasoning in nursing: challenges and possibilities. Nurs Inq 2021;28: e12374. https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12374.Search in Google Scholar PubMed

15. Dorst, K. The core of ‘design thinking’ and its application. Des Stud 2011;32:521–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2011.07.006.Search in Google Scholar

16. Akita, N, Morita, Y, Shiizuka, H. Fundamental consideration on the process of product design using inference patterns. Int J Affect Eng 2018;17:75–80. https://doi.org/10.5057/ijae.ijae-d-17-00017.Search in Google Scholar

17. Sturmberg, JP. Without systems and complexity thinking there is no progress – or why bureaucracy needs to become curious comment on “what can policy-makers get out of systems thinking? Policy partners’ experiences of a systems-focused research collaboration in preventive health”. Int J Health Pol Manag 2021;10:277–80.10.34172/ijhpm.2020.45Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

18. Abookire, S, Plover, C, Frasso, R, Ku, B. Health design thinking: an innovative approach in public health to defining problems and finding solutions. Front Public Health 2020;8:459. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00459.Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

19. Chinn, PKM. Knowledge development in nursing: theory and process, 9th ed Maryland Heights: Mosby; 2014.Search in Google Scholar

20. Shimizu, T, Tokuda, Y. System 3 diagnostic process: the lateral approach. Int J Gen Med 2012;5:873–4. https://doi.org/10.2147/ijgm.s36859.Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

21. Barnett, ML, Boddupalli, D, Nundy, S, Bates, DW. Comparative accuracy of diagnosis by collective intelligence of multiple physicians vs. individual physicians. JAMA Netw Open 2019;2:e190096. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.0096.Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

22. Kurvers, RH, Herzog, SM, Hertwig, R, Krause, J, Carney, PA, Bogart, A, et al.. Boosting medical diagnostics by pooling independent judgments. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2016;113:8777–82. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1601827113.Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

23. Harada, T, Miyagami, T, Kunitomo, K, Shimizu, T. Clinical decision support systems for diagnosis in primary care: a scoping review. Int J Environ Res Publ Health 2021;18:8435. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168435.Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

24. Baran, BE, Woznyj, HM. Managing VUCA: the human dynamics of agility. Organ Dynam 2020:100787.10.1016/j.orgdyn.2020.100787Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central

25. Maini, A, Saravanan, Y, Singh, TA, Fyfe, M. Coaching skills for medical education in a VUCA world. Med Teach 2020;42:1308–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159x.2020.1788713.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2022-01-16
Accepted: 2022-05-10
Published Online: 2022-06-08

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Review
  3. Affective influences on clinical reasoning and diagnosis: insights from social psychology and new research opportunities
  4. Mini Review
  5. Homocysteine in coronavirus disease (COVID-19): a systematic literature review
  6. Opinion Paper
  7. How insight contributes to diagnostic excellence
  8. Original Articles
  9. Diagnostic statements: a linguistic analysis of how clinicians communicate diagnosis
  10. The use of podcasts as a tool to teach clinical reasoning: a pseudorandomized and controlled study
  11. Diagnostic delays in infectious diseases
  12. Diagnostic journeys: characterization of patients and diagnostic outcomes from an academic second opinion clinic
  13. A pause in pediatrics: implementation of a pediatric diagnostic time-out
  14. Applying a diagnostic excellence framework to assess opportunities to improve recognition of child physical abuse
  15. Identifying predictors for source culture positivity in children with acute musculoskeletal infections
  16. Comparison of SARS-CoV-2 antigen electrochemiluminescence immunoassay to RT-PCR assay for laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19 in Peshawar
  17. Performance evaluation of automated cell counts compared with reference methods for body fluid analysis
  18. Short Communication
  19. Impact of subspecialty consultations on diagnosis in the pediatric intensive care unit
  20. Case Report - Lessons in Clinical Reasoning
  21. Pharmacists can improve diagnosis and help prevent diagnostic errors
  22. Letter to the Editors
  23. The art of diagnostic reasoning
  24. Improving the physical exam: a new assessment and evaluation tool for physical examination skills
  25. Performance of the Wondfo 2019-nCoV antigen test using self-collected nasal versus professional-collected nasopharyngeal swabs in symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection
Downloaded on 17.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/dx-2022-0007/html
Scroll to top button