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Uncertainty and Clinical Method

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Clinical Uncertainty in Primary Care

Abstract

Trisha Greenhalgh reviews the literature on clinical uncertainty by describing the visits with four of her primary care patients. She presents a four-part taxonomy of uncertainty illustrated in the context of these patients’ visits. Uncertainty about the evidence – the ‘voice of medicine’ dimension of the visit – relates to the completeness, accuracy, relevance of research-based evidence, and balance between potential benefits and harms. Uncertainty about the patient’s story – the ‘voice of the lifeworld’ dimension – raises questions about how to explore the contexts and complexities of patients’ lives. Uncertainty about what best to do for the particular patient raises questions about using clinical judgment (the summation of knowledge, skill, and practical wisdom) to address each patient’s unique set of issues. Uncertainties embodied in risks to quality and safety arising when care becomes a collaborative endeavour with its mix of human-human, technology-human, and technology-technology interactions add to the substrate for the clinical method.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    1 I am indebted to my general practitioner Ph.D. student, Deborah Swinglehurst, for many discussions on ‘voice’ in the electronic patient record.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Primary Care and Public Health, Blizard Institute, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Yvonne Carter Building, 58 Turner Street, London, E1 2AB, UK

    Trisha Greenhalgh

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  1. Trisha Greenhalgh
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Correspondence to Trisha Greenhalgh .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Dept. Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 2393 Filbert Street, San Francisco, 94123, California, USA

    Lucia Siegel Sommers

  2. Tavistock Clinic, 120 Belsize Lane, London, NW3 5BA, United Kingdom

    John Launer

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Greenhalgh, T. (2013). Uncertainty and Clinical Method. In: Sommers, L., Launer, J. (eds) Clinical Uncertainty in Primary Care. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6812-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6812-7_2

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