Science and Logic in Medical Diagnosis

Science and Logic in Medical Diagnosis

Author: Lee A Forstrom

Publisher: FriesenPress

Published: 2021-07-26

Total Pages: 247

ISBN-13: 1525553356

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Clinicians and patients know the importance of correct diagnosis for proper treatment. So important – a correct diagnosis – it is the first theme of this book. Several other themes are also important. A second theme is established as “cause and effect,” common or peculiar linked entities in at least some humans. A third theme deals with probabilities, both objective and statistical and/or subjective probabilities. The fourth theme covers the inhomogeneity among all humans. That is, all people are unique. Is science a theme? Not of this kind. Instead, science encompasses all of the themes above and others. Logic holds their framework. The diagnostic model above has been modified by allowing wider scope of inference similar to the earlier “differential diagnoses” model. A quite radical model called “Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM),” was created about thirty years ago. Its advocates depend largely on statistics, with little interest in science. Discussion and comparisons with traditional and EBM models argue here undesirable shortcomings of the latter. Far from dismissing science, but robust medical science, knowledge, experience and professional clinicians continues in caring her/his individual patients.


How Scientists Explain Disease

How Scientists Explain Disease

Author: Paul Thagard

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2000-07-30

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 9780691050836

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How do scientists develop new explanations of disease? How do those explanations become accepted as true? And how does medical diagnosis change when physicians are confronted with new scientific evidence? These are some of the questions that Paul Thagard pursues in this book that develops a new, integrative approach to the study of science. How Scientists Explain Disease challenges both traditional philosophy of science, which has viewed science as largely a matter of logic, and contemporary science studies that view science as largely a matter of power. Drawing on theories of distributed computing and artificial intelligence, Paul Thagard develops new models that make sense of scientific change as a complex system of cognitive, social, and physical interactions.


Philosophy of Medicine

Philosophy of Medicine

Author: Fred Gifford

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2011-08-23

Total Pages: 601

ISBN-13: 0444517871

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This volume covers a wide range of conceptual, epistemological and methodological issues in the philosophy of science raised by reflection upon medical science and practice. Several chapters examine such general meta-scientific concepts as discovery, reduction, theories and models, causal inference and scientific realism as they apply to medicine or medical science in particular. Some discuss important concepts specific to medicine (diagnosis, health, disease, brain death). A topic such as evidence, for instance, is examined at a variety of levels, from social mechanisms for guiding evidence-based reasoning such as evidence-based medicine, consensus conferences, and clinical trials, to the more abstract analysis of experimentation, inference and uncertainty. Some chapters reflect on particular domains of medicine, including psychiatry, public health, and nursing. The contributions span a broad range of detailed cases from the science and practice of medicine, as well as a broad range of intellectual approaches, from conceptual analysis to detailed examinations of particular scientific papers or historical episodes. Chapters view philosophy of medicine from quite different angles Considers substantive cases from both medical science and practice Chapters from a distinguished array of contributors


Improving Diagnosis in Health Care

Improving Diagnosis in Health Care

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2015-12-29

Total Pages: 473

ISBN-13: 0309377722

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Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.


Rational Diagnosis and Treatment

Rational Diagnosis and Treatment

Author: Peter Gøtzsche

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-03-11

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780470723685

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Now in its fourth edition, Rational Diagnosis and Treatment: Evidence-Based Clinical Decision-Making is a unique book to look at evidence-based medicine and the difficulty of applying evidence from group studies to individual patients. The book analyses the successive stages of the decision process and deals with topics such as the examination of the patient, the reliability of clinical data, the logic of diagnosis, the fallacies of uncontrolled therapeutic experience and the need for randomised clinical trials and meta-analyses. It is the main theme of the book that, whenever possible, clinical decisions must be based on the evidence from clinical research, but the authors also explain the pitfalls of such research and the problems involved in applying evidence from groups of patients to the individual patient. For this new edition, the sections on placebo and meta-analysis and on alternative medicine have been thoroughly updated, and there is more focus on insufficient reporting of harms of interventions. The sections on different research designs describe advantages and limitations, and the increased medicalisation and the effects of cancer screening on health people are noted. A section on academic freedom when clinicians collaborate with industry and ghost authors is added. This essential reference work integrates the science and statistical approach of evidence-based medicine with the art and humanism of medical practice; distinguishing between data, sets of data, knowledge and wisdom, and their application. Such an intellectually challenging book is ideal for both medical students and doctors who require theoretical and practical clinical skills to help ensure that they apply theory in practice.


Oxford Handbook of Clinical Diagnosis

Oxford Handbook of Clinical Diagnosis

Author: Huw Llewelyn

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 683

ISBN-13: 019967986X

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This handbook describes the diagnostic process clearly and logically, aiding medical students and others who wish to improve their diagnostic performance and to learn more about the diagnostic process.


The Logic of Medicine

The Logic of Medicine

Author: Edmond A. Murphy

Publisher:

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 511

ISBN-13: 9780801855382

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When first published twenty years ago, The Logic of Medicine presented a new way of thinking about clinical medicine as a scholarly discipline as well as a profession. Since then, advances in research and technology have revolutionized both the practice and theory of medicine. In this new, extensively rewritten edition, Dr. Murphy includes changes to show how these different areas of scholarship may affect details of "the logic of medicine" without compromising its fundamental coherence. New to this edition are discussions of the challenge of the flood of new empirical data, new ideas in genetics, molecular biology, homeostasis, pathogenesis, cancer, aging, and Alzheimer's disease. Murphy also comments on such new theoretical topics as dynamic systems, chaos, and fractals and their impact on the burgeoning fields of philosophy and practice of medicine. Written with medical students in mind, the book includes a glossary, many new examples, and problems for solutions with comments on each. An entirely new chapter deals with modeling. Clinicians and researchers will also find the principles thought-provoking and illuminating.


Logic of Discovery and Diagnosis in Medicine

Logic of Discovery and Diagnosis in Medicine

Author: Kenneth F. Schaffner

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2023-04-28

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0520317130

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This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.


Handbook of Analytic Philosophy of Medicine

Handbook of Analytic Philosophy of Medicine

Author: Kazem Sadegh-Zadeh

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-04-06

Total Pages: 1232

ISBN-13: 9401795797

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Medical practice is practiced morality, and clinical research belongs to normative ethics. The present book elucidates and advances this thesis by: 1. analyzing the structure of medical language, knowledge, and theories; 2. inquiring into the foundations of the clinical encounter; 3. introducing the logic and methodology of clinical decision-making, including artificial intelligence in medicine; 4. suggesting comprehensive theories of organism, life, and psyche; of health, illness, and disease; of etiology, diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, and therapy; and 5. investigating the moral and metaphysical issues central to medical practice and research. Many systems of (classical, modal, non-classical, probability, and fuzzy) logic are introduced and applied. Fuzzy medical deontics, fuzzy medical ontology, fuzzy medical concept formation, fuzzy medical decision-making and biomedicine and many other techniques of fuzzification in medicine are introduced for the first time.