Desaturation during the pandemic: Covid or cognitive bias?
The coronavirus pandemic has put an unprecedented strain on our health care system. An urgent need for timely and accurate diagnosis coupled with an inordinate caseload and myriad overlapping signs and symptoms with other differentials is leaving physicians fatigued. This often leads to the use of m...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.jfmpc.com/article.asp?issn=2249-4863;year=2022;volume=11;issue=11;spage=7466;epage=7468;aulast=Nangia |
| _version_ | 1797954839697686528 |
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| author | Ritika Nangia Chetna Arvind Sethi Niharika Dhiman |
| author_facet | Ritika Nangia Chetna Arvind Sethi Niharika Dhiman |
| author_sort | Ritika Nangia |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The coronavirus pandemic has put an unprecedented strain on our health care system. An urgent need for timely and accurate diagnosis coupled with an inordinate caseload and myriad overlapping signs and symptoms with other differentials is leaving physicians fatigued. This often leads to the use of mental shortcuts – “heuristics” by the strained mind and the inadvertent use of intuitive thought processes rather than the more controlled analytical thinking to cope and speed up the decision-making process.
Availability bias – making a recent or vivid patient diagnosis more readily accessible to the mind – and anchoring bias – relying too heavily on a single symptom for deducing diagnosis – are among the most prevalent cognitive biases. Therefore, it is not unexpected that any new cases of acute onset respiratory illness may be mis-diagnosed as coronavirus disease 2019 during the pandemic, significantly impacting the morbidity and mortality of true diagnosis. To reduce the risk of patient harm, it is therefore imperative that medical practitioners be aware of the existence and influence of cognitive bias in clinical decision making and maintain sight of a variety of differential diagnoses to ensure that no adverse condition is overlooked. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T23:24:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-15d46b6d1af34c37a5886a2f3e66682a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2249-4863 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T23:24:54Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care |
| spelling | doaj.art-15d46b6d1af34c37a5886a2f3e66682a2023-01-12T12:42:33ZengWolters Kluwer Medknow PublicationsJournal of Family Medicine and Primary Care2249-48632022-01-0111117466746810.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_833_22Desaturation during the pandemic: Covid or cognitive bias?Ritika NangiaChetna Arvind SethiNiharika DhimanThe coronavirus pandemic has put an unprecedented strain on our health care system. An urgent need for timely and accurate diagnosis coupled with an inordinate caseload and myriad overlapping signs and symptoms with other differentials is leaving physicians fatigued. This often leads to the use of mental shortcuts – “heuristics” by the strained mind and the inadvertent use of intuitive thought processes rather than the more controlled analytical thinking to cope and speed up the decision-making process. Availability bias – making a recent or vivid patient diagnosis more readily accessible to the mind – and anchoring bias – relying too heavily on a single symptom for deducing diagnosis – are among the most prevalent cognitive biases. Therefore, it is not unexpected that any new cases of acute onset respiratory illness may be mis-diagnosed as coronavirus disease 2019 during the pandemic, significantly impacting the morbidity and mortality of true diagnosis. To reduce the risk of patient harm, it is therefore imperative that medical practitioners be aware of the existence and influence of cognitive bias in clinical decision making and maintain sight of a variety of differential diagnoses to ensure that no adverse condition is overlooked.http://www.jfmpc.com/article.asp?issn=2249-4863;year=2022;volume=11;issue=11;spage=7466;epage=7468;aulast=Nangiaanchoring biasavailability biascognitive biasheuristics |
| spellingShingle | Ritika Nangia Chetna Arvind Sethi Niharika Dhiman Desaturation during the pandemic: Covid or cognitive bias? Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care anchoring bias availability bias cognitive bias heuristics |
| title | Desaturation during the pandemic: Covid or cognitive bias? |
| title_full | Desaturation during the pandemic: Covid or cognitive bias? |
| title_fullStr | Desaturation during the pandemic: Covid or cognitive bias? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Desaturation during the pandemic: Covid or cognitive bias? |
| title_short | Desaturation during the pandemic: Covid or cognitive bias? |
| title_sort | desaturation during the pandemic covid or cognitive bias |
| topic | anchoring bias availability bias cognitive bias heuristics |
| url | http://www.jfmpc.com/article.asp?issn=2249-4863;year=2022;volume=11;issue=11;spage=7466;epage=7468;aulast=Nangia |
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