Programs

Residency Education

Resident Clinical Reasoning Education

Clinical reasoning is a core competency of residency training. During this phase of training, residents continue developing their expertise in clinical care. The Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making has dedicated itself since 2012 to the creation of a culture of clinical reasoning and patient safety within the UPMC Internal Medicine Residency and more broadly throughout UPMC.

The cornerstone of clinical reasoning education at UPMC is the Diagnostic Error and Medical Decision Making online, interactive modules. These online, interactive modules provide a strong foundation in the core principles of diagnostic reasoning including the cognitive psychology of diagnosis, cognitive errors in medicine, and cognitive biases. Although grounded in didactic content, they are clinically focused and specifically geared towards skill practice. These modules are also used by other residency programs across the UPMC system and by several other programs/health systems across the United States.

Clinical Reasoning Conference forms the other cornerstone of reasoning education within the UPMC Internal Medicine Residency. During these interactive monthly conferences, an unknown clinical vignette is presented by one of the residents to an expert clinical discussant. A moderator from the Clinical Center for Medical Decision Making helps to guide the case discussion, focusing on teaching about the clinical reasoning occurring in the case. This conference is held live in UPMC Montefiore Hospital, with broadcasting live across the UPMC system. For more information, please email Dr. Casey McQuade (mcquadec@upmc.edu).

Other aspects of our resident-level clinical reasoning program include Pitt Puzzles, our online series of interactive case tutorials, and the Clinical Reasoning Certificate Program.

Lastly, we provide regular faculty development in clinical reasoning education to our teaching generalist and hospitalist faculty. Maintaining awareness of these concepts and a common language for discussing them among faculty is a key part of the culture of clinical reasoning the Center has worked so hard to cultivate.