Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Health Care Processes and Decision Making
Lecture:Gathering data and analyzing findings
Making a diagnosis
The impact of EHRs and technology on clinical decision-making
Slide content:Pathophysiologic Approach All the Causes of Jaundice Erythrocyte Disorder of erythropoiesis Disorder of hemolysis Liver Disorder of uptake Disorder of conjugation Disorder of secretion Biliary obstruction Intrahepatic obstruction Bile duct obstruction Pancreas obstruction (cancer) 7
Slide notes:This slide illustrates how a differential diagnosis may be generated by recalling the underlying physiology. In this case, when evaluating a patient with jaundice, a clinician may recall all the steps in the formation and excretion of bilirubin [ bil -uh- roo -bin], from hemoglobin [ hee - muh - gloh -bin] in the red blood cells to the excretion of urobilinogen [ yer -uh- buh - lihn -uh- jin ]. By remembering all of the steps involved in the physiology, a clinician can construct a fairly complete differential diagnosis for this problem. More often, rather than a highly detailed differential diagnosis, clinicians think in terms of the major groups: disorders of red blood cells, disorders of the liver, and disorders of the gallbladder and biliary [ bil -yuh-ree ] system. By thinking first in terms of these large groups, the clinician may then pursue further information to simplify the problem by eliminating entire categories of disease. 7