Background:
The Exercises in Clinical Reasoning (ECR) section of JGIM Web provides tools for faculty and trainees interested in both learning and explicitly teaching core concepts in clinical reasoning. Ultimately, we aim to have a positive impact on students and trainees as they develop expertise in the diagnostic process, with the core aim of improving patient care. The ECR series utilizes a clinical problem-solving format and then includes a meta-cognitive commentary to decipher the clinical reasoning process used by expert diagnosticians. This parallel process allows the reader to understand the framework by which the clinician solves (or doesn’t solve) the case.
On this site, you will find a downloadable curriculum built on the ECR series designed to help clinician educators learn and teach critical reasoning concepts. Each case on the website will include an introduction to the clinical reasoning concept highlighted in the case, downloadable teaching slides, which include an embedded instructor’s guide, and links to other clinical reasoning resources. We hope that the ECR website will inspire others to use clinical reasoning concepts to enhance their teaching, and potentially, and will even motivate some educators to submit their work to the JGIM ECR series.
Content for each clinical reasoning concept:
Introductory document: Defines the reasoning concept and links it to the related ECR case(s)
ECR case: Provides free access to the ECR manuscript(s)
PowerPoint: Offers a teaching slide-set that can be used to walk learners through the ECR case while focusing on a key reasoning concept