For Your Health
For Your Health

News from the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences

Diagnose the Diagnosis: Automating assessment of diagnostic reasoning Feb. 4

The Office of Education and Faculty Affairs and Education Resources invite you to attend an interactive faculty development session with (returning!) guest presenter Dr. Jason Waechter: “Diagnose the Diagnosis: Automating the Assessment of Student Diagnostic Reasoning.”

Every health care educator knows that diagnostic reasoning is key to providing effective and safe patient care; yet, providing real-world practice is labor- and time-intensive. Even if we could provide patient-centered, diagnostic reasoning instruction on a routine basis, assessing individual student performance in an objective, standardized, and valid manner over time represents a significant challenge.

Addressing this challenge will be the University of Calgary researcher, Dr. Waechter, who will be at the SMHS on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020, for two learning sessions from noon to 3 p.m. in Room W203.

The session will be separated into two parts. Attendance at both is preferred but not required: please join us when you are able. The specific activities will include:

Noon to 1 p.m. (lunch provided):

  • An introduction to the system
  • An interactive demonstration of the system from a student perspective
  • The opportunity to review the data and statistics generated by the case and compare these to previously collected student data

The first hour will be streamed live and recorded.

1 p.m. to 3 p.m.:

  • Learn how to input your own (or a sample) diagnostic reasoning case for your own curriculum and to collect and analyze the “big data” that results for the use of this tool to assess individual student diagnostic reasoning.

This will be an interactive session. In-person participants MUST bring a laptop computer or tablet (smartphone is not compatible). You will only able to complete the activities if you bring a laptop or tablet. If you need to borrow a computer, please reach out to Library Resources at least one week prior to the session. Those responsible for or interested in creating cases in the system should also bring one or two existing UND cases for which you are responsible (a sample case will be provided for those who do not have one).

A light lunch will be offered for on-site attendees (of course, you are also welcome to bring your own lunch!). Please RSVP by Jan. 30 to help us ensure we have enough for everyone at: https://und.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aeYQaEY7PQMuRdr

In November of 2018, Dr. Waechter visited the SMHS and presented an overview of his system (you can watch the first session here). Now, join Dr. Waechter as he provides an interactive hands-on session on the use of an automated online diagnostic reasoning tool that presents patient cases and collects incremental reasoning data as students progress through the case. This session will be of great interest to anyone who is involved in medical or health care education and is interested in the diagnostic processes, bias, cognitive error, misdiagnosis, clinical reasoning, and the data surrounding these elements.

Dr. Waechter is board certified in cardiac anesthesia and critical care and works in Calgary, Alberta. He has been teaching medical students since 2002 and is passionate about clinical reasoning and competency-based outcomes. He is the founder of teachingmedicine.com, an online resource dedicated to improving diagnostic accuracy which has been included in the core curriculum of UND medical school for three years.