AEE Education Certificate: Cognitive Bias: educational strategies to promote reflection

Facilitated by Rebecca Clemo, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine

Description/Learning Outcomes: It is increasingly appreciated that cognitive bias plays a role in diagnostic error, however there is limited evidence describing how effectively to combat bias in trainees’ practice. Through review of recent medical education literature, this workshop will outline the theoretical basis of cognitive bias with a focus on dual process theory in diagnostic reasoning. These concepts will be used to build definitions of common cognitive biases and their contribution to diagnostic error in clinical practice. After creating a shared vocabulary for cognitive errors, the workshop will describe different debiasing or cognitive forcing strategies that can countermand the impact of bias on clinical decision making. An emphasis will be placed on methods to identify situations at high risk for cognitive error, particularly potentially rushed or flawed decision making, and practical strategies for confronting associated implicit biases. The current education literature investigating effectiveness and impact of strategies to teach these skills to trainees will be reviewed. Finally, approaches for applying these concepts to a formal clinical reasoning curriculum will be modeled through interactive simulation of the Internal Medicine Residency’s morbidity and mortality (M&M) conference. By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to define cognitive bias within the context of medical decision making, with particular focus on its contribution to diagnostic errors, and review the common types of cognitive bias observed in trainees; define and review examples of debiasing strategies for medical decision making with a framework for teaching trainees these skills; and review the literature regarding educational strategies to teach these skills and model UVA Internal Medicine’s application of these clinical reasoning concepts to a debiasing curriculum using the morbidity and mortality conference format. (1 CME Credit)

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