Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Health Care Processes and Decision Making
Lecture:The clinical process - overview of the classic paradigm
Gathering data and analyzing findings
Making a diagnosis
The impact of EHRs and technology on clinical decision-making
Slide content:Disease Disease often tells its secrets in a casual parenthesis. Wilfred Trotter 9
Slide notes:Although a great deal of effort is devoted to giving structure to clinical data, the narrative structure is pervasive throughout the clinical process. This slide contains an old saying in health care, attributed to Wilfred Trotter , that says, [quote] Disease often tells its secrets in a casual parenthesis. [end quote] This means that despite the clinicians attempt to elicit useful information about the patients problem by asking pointed and directed questions, critical clues may emerge only when the patient is simply allowed to tell his or her story. In fact, the clinical process almost always begins and very often ends with a narrative. 9