Chapter 1.A.3: The Nature of Medical Judgment

The following are articles that give detailed examples of clinical decision making in a specific cases:

• Peter Albertsen, Clinical Crossroads: A 72-Year-Old Man with Localized Prostate Cancer, 274 JAMA 69 (1995). And, the same doctor and patient reflecting 14 years later.
• James N. Weinstein, A 45-Year-Old Man with Low Back Pain and a Numb Left Foot, 280 JAMA 730 (1998).
• Gallagher TH. A 62-year-old woman with skin cancer who experienced wrong-site surgery: review of medical error. JAMA. 2009 Aug 12;302(6):669-77
• Carrozza JP Jr, Sellke FW.  A 69-year-old woman with left main coronary artery disease. JAMA. 2004 Nov 24;292(20):2506-14.
• A series of articles in the NY Times Magazine column “Diagnosis”

For discussion of variation in medical practice patterns, see David Cutler, et al. “Physician Beliefs and Patient Preferences: A New Look at Regional Variation in Health Care Spending.” 11 Am. Econ. J. 192 (2019).

Also discussing artificial intelligence in medicine, see W. Nicholson Price, Regulating Black-Box Medicine, 116 Mich. L. Rev. 421 (2017); Jane R. Bambauer, Dr. Robot, 51 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 383 (2017)