Availability Bias and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Legionella Pneumonia

Cognitive biases, such as the availability heuristic or availability bias, can inadvertently affect patient outcomes. These biases may be magnified during times of heightened awareness of a particular disease. Failure to identify cognitive biases when managing patients during the coronavirus disease...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kyere, Kwaku, Aremu, Taiwo O, Ajibola, Oluwafemi A
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2022
Materias:
Emergency Medicine
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9273171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35832749
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.25846
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author Kyere, Kwaku
Aremu, Taiwo O
Ajibola, Oluwafemi A
author_facet Kyere, Kwaku
Aremu, Taiwo O
Ajibola, Oluwafemi A
author_sort Kyere, Kwaku
collection PubMed
description Cognitive biases, such as the availability heuristic or availability bias, can inadvertently affect patient outcomes. These biases may be magnified during times of heightened awareness of a particular disease. Failure to identify cognitive biases when managing patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic can delay the institution of the right treatment option and result in poor health outcomes. We present a case of delayed diagnosis of Legionella pneumonia due to COVID-19-related availability bias. We discuss some methods to mitigate the effects of this bias and the importance of challenging trainees to recognize these pitfalls in medical training.
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spelling pubmed-92731712022-07-12 Availability Bias and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Legionella Pneumonia Kyere, Kwaku Aremu, Taiwo O Ajibola, Oluwafemi A Cureus Emergency Medicine Cognitive biases, such as the availability heuristic or availability bias, can inadvertently affect patient outcomes. These biases may be magnified during times of heightened awareness of a particular disease. Failure to identify cognitive biases when managing patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic can delay the institution of the right treatment option and result in poor health outcomes. We present a case of delayed diagnosis of Legionella pneumonia due to COVID-19-related availability bias. We discuss some methods to mitigate the effects of this bias and the importance of challenging trainees to recognize these pitfalls in medical training. Cureus 2022-06-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9273171/ /pubmed/35832749 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.25846 Text en Copyright © 2022, Kyere et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Emergency Medicine
Kyere, Kwaku
Aremu, Taiwo O
Ajibola, Oluwafemi A
Availability Bias and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Legionella Pneumonia
title Availability Bias and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Legionella Pneumonia
title_full Availability Bias and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Legionella Pneumonia
title_fullStr Availability Bias and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Legionella Pneumonia
title_full_unstemmed Availability Bias and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Legionella Pneumonia
title_short Availability Bias and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Legionella Pneumonia
title_sort availability bias and the covid-19 pandemic: a case study of legionella pneumonia
topic Emergency Medicine
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9273171/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35832749
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.25846
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