Pritzker News
Symptom to Diagnosis
University of Chicago Faculty Publish Symptom to Diagnosis: An Evidence Based Guide
Dr. Scott Stern, Dr. Adam Cifu and Dr. DianeAltkorn
Congratulations to Drs. Scott Stern, Adam Cifu, and Diane Altkorn of the Department of Medicine on the publication of their medicine textbook, Symptom to Diagnosis. On Thursday, November 3rd, The Pritzker School of Medicine sponsored a book signing at the University of Chicago bookstore for our students and faculty, with over 70 books sold and signed by the three co-authors. The textbook is aimed at third year medical students in their internal medicine clerkship. The authors' approach is highly innovative. Rather than focus each chapter on different diseases, the book guides students through clinical reasoning in the dynamic way it occurs on the wards and in the clinics. Symptom to Diagnosis is available from Lange Press and can be purchased on Amazon.com and in the University of Chicago Bookstore.
The following is an excerpt from the Preface of Symptom to Diagnosis by Drs. Scott Stern, Adam Cifu, and Diane Altkorn:
Our goal in creating Symptom to Diagnosis was to develop an interesting, practical, and informative approach to learning the diagnostic process in internal medicine. Interesting, because real patient cases are integrated within each chapter, complementing what can otherwise be dry and soporific. Informative, because Symptom to Diagnosis articulates the most difficult process in becoming a physician: namely making an accurate diagnosis. Many other textbooks describe diseases, but fail to characterize the process used to get from the patient's presentation to the diagnosis…Symptom to Diagnosis aims to help students and residents learn internal medicine and focuses on the challenging task of diagnosis. Using a framework and terminology presented in Chapter 1, each chapter addresses one common complaint, such as chest pain. The chapter begins with a case and an explanation of a way to frame, or organize, the differential diagnosis. As the case progresses, clinical reasoning is clearly articulated. The differential diagnosis for that particular case is summarized in tables that delineate the clinical clues and important tests for the leading diagnostic hypothesis and important alternative diagnostic hypotheses. As the chapter progresses, the pertinent diseases are reviewed. Like in real life, the case unfolds in a stepwise fashion as tests are performed and diagnoses are confirmed or refuted. Readers are continually engaged by a series of questions that direct the evaluation. Each chapter contains several cases and most conclude with a diagnostic algorithm...
All third year medical students at Tulane University and Louisiana State University Schools of Medicine received a copy of Symptom to Diagnosis, courtesy of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Dean James Madara arranged for 335 copies of this textbook to be shipped from McGraw-Hill to Tulane's temporary site in Houston, Texas and to LSU's temporary site in Baton Rouge, Louisiana as a gesture of our support.
