A Bayesian approach to chest pain? (Editorial)
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Author(s)
Margolis, Stephen A
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2017
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My medical school educational experience was a rather structured affair. Following a lengthy science course, we moved to exploring the clinical method of history, examination and special tests. Looking back from a distance, my teachers’ choice of chest pain as the illustrative example of the clinical presentation was ideal. Cardiovascular disease was, back then and remains today, the most common cause of death. Management of myocardial infarction at that time had not yet moved to the sophisticated processes readily available today. The pathological causes of chest pain could be easily listed and understood. However, in the ...
View more >My medical school educational experience was a rather structured affair. Following a lengthy science course, we moved to exploring the clinical method of history, examination and special tests. Looking back from a distance, my teachers’ choice of chest pain as the illustrative example of the clinical presentation was ideal. Cardiovascular disease was, back then and remains today, the most common cause of death. Management of myocardial infarction at that time had not yet moved to the sophisticated processes readily available today. The pathological causes of chest pain could be easily listed and understood. However, in the absence of ready access to the sophisticated tests available today, matching the clinical presentation of chest pain in an individual patient to the range of pathological causes was challenging. I still remember watching in awe as the cardiologists would make a specific diagnosis from the history, examination and electrocardiogram alone, a task non-experts found challenging.
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View more >My medical school educational experience was a rather structured affair. Following a lengthy science course, we moved to exploring the clinical method of history, examination and special tests. Looking back from a distance, my teachers’ choice of chest pain as the illustrative example of the clinical presentation was ideal. Cardiovascular disease was, back then and remains today, the most common cause of death. Management of myocardial infarction at that time had not yet moved to the sophisticated processes readily available today. The pathological causes of chest pain could be easily listed and understood. However, in the absence of ready access to the sophisticated tests available today, matching the clinical presentation of chest pain in an individual patient to the range of pathological causes was challenging. I still remember watching in awe as the cardiologists would make a specific diagnosis from the history, examination and electrocardiogram alone, a task non-experts found challenging.
View less >
Journal Title
Australian Family Physician
Volume
46
Issue
11
Publisher URI
Copyright Statement
© 2017 Australian Family Physician. Reproduced with permission. Permission to reproduce must be sought from the publisher, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
Subject
Clinical sciences
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Primary Health Care
Medicine, General & Internal
General & Internal Medicine