Developing Clinical Problem-Solving Skills: A Guide to More Effective Diagnosis and Treatment

By Howard S. Barrows and Garfield C. Pickell

Book Overview

The transformation from medical student to physician is a gradual one, requiring the assimilation of vast amounts of knowledge as well as the development of the ability to "think like a doctor." The thought processes that enable a physician to "think like a doctor" are perhaps the most difficult skills the clinician-in-training must acquire in medical school and residency. In this extraordinary book, Dr. Howard Barrows, one of the world's foremost medical educators, beautifully and simply articulates those mental processes that allow accomplished physicians to reach diagnostic conclusions with speed and confidence. Students who master the contents of this book will take a long step forward in acquiring the diagnostic skills that are the hallmark of the experienced physician.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393710106
• ISBN13: 9780393710106
• Release Date: June 1991
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 1.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Concise, Useful Primer

I am currently re-reading this book as part of a process of rejuvenating and re-organizing the way I approach clinical thinking because I found it so valuable the first time through. The information is laid out in an organized, logical fashion that does encourage you to engage with the clinical situations that are presented. I believe that this book would be particularly useful for a student in their first 2 years of medical school, during that critical period when a future physician is laying the foundation of their cognitive approach to diagnosis and treatment. This kind of linear process is not all of the story, however. I would recommend balancing this book with Jerome Groopman's "How Doctors Think" for an excellent exploration of the non-linear aspects of clinical thought.