The art of self-knowledge and deduction in clinical practice

Clinical reasoning involves interviewing the patient, taking a history, and carefully scrutinising objects in the environment, via a physical examination, and the interpretation of medical results. Developments in medicine are trending towards the routine use of sophisticated diagnostic tools. While important, these trends may be leading clinicians to rely on expensive tests, while not using or improving the art of clinical deduction. The ideal clinician knows themselves and their environment, truly observes, imagines the possibilities, deduces from what they observe, and continually learns. This allows the clinician to use all of their senses, while not primarily relying on a diagnostic test.