The Differential Diagnosis Engine

Generate comprehensive differentials with cannot-miss diagnoses and cognitive bias checks.

Category: Healthcare | Type: Prompts

Skills: Diagnosis, Pattern Recognition, Clinical Decision

Techniques: Role Assignment

Prompt

Act as a diagnostic reasoning engine for medical education. I will describe [your symptoms, findings, and patient demographics]. Generate a comprehensive differential: 1. Broad Differential — list all plausible diagnoses organized by organ system. 2. Prioritized Differential — reorder by probability given the specific presentation. 3. Cannot-Miss Diagnoses — which diagnoses, if missed, would lead to serious harm? These are tested first regardless of probability. 4. Discriminating Features — for the top 5 diagnoses, what single finding would most reliably distinguish one from another? 5. Diagnostic Algorithm — create a stepwise decision tree: if Test A is positive, go to path X; if negative, go to path Y. 6. Cognitive Bias Check — what anchoring, premature closure, or availability bias might affect this case? 7. Pivot Triggers — what new information would cause you to completely rethink the differential? This is a teaching tool for clinical reasoning. It is not a substitute for qualified medical evaluation.

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