This is a slightly out of the box article on decision making, diagnosis, interpretation, and patient management, with a special reference to an orthopaedic surgeon. I will discuss reasoning, heuristics, and therapeutic decision making, the lesser taught subjects in our curriculum. Reasoning: Clinical expertise is a nonquantifiable term at least for now. We rank chess players, Olympic athletes, formula one racers, or a symphony artist so that we are able to distinguish a Sunday boxer from an Olympic champion, or a grandmaster from a chess hobbyist.
A bathroom singer from a professional singer, or someone like me, from a tennis professional. However, in medicine and especially Orthopaedics, one you qualify, there is no ranking system based on one’s performance criteria. All of us occasionally consult an elite colleague, super specialist, or a center for excellence, but unfortunately,…
