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In anticipation of our series of podcasts on Diagnostic Decision Making with Dr. Walter Himmel, Dr. Chris Hicks and Dr. David Dushenski we have Dr. Hicks presenting his Best Case Ever. Taking action in Emergency Medicine requires not only careful consideration of the best evidence, the expertise of the clinician, the patient's values and the system that you work in, but also the will to act. Dr. Hicks describes a case of a patient who suffers a cardiac arrest, where the diagnosis is quite obvious to everyone in the room (and the required action is as well), yet a delay in treatment occurs nonetheless.

In the upcoming episodes on Diagnostic Decision Making we discuss:

* the intersection between evidence-based medicine, cognitive decision making and systems issues
* how the 3 spheres of EBM - the best evidence , the clinician's expertise and the patient's values, enter into diagnostic decision making
* the cognitive biases we need to be aware of in diagnostic decision making
* a discussion on the evolution and geographic variation of risk tolerance in EM
* the true meaning of shared decision making as it applies to testing in the ED
* the systems and individual factors that contribute to over-investigating as well as strategies to prevent it