Abstract

Clinical judgment has traditionally been left to be acquired chiefly through personal experience and conversations with experienced practitioners. Given the explosion of knowledge and technology of recent years, a more lystematic approach to managing information has become increasingly important. Ethical issues, both of a social and more individual nature, also increasingly demand attention. This paper describes one effort to address these problems through medical education. A three quarter pre-clinical course was revised to incorporate decision analysis and ethical analysis. The approach, results and problems of the two-year-old innovation are discussed, and general recommendations are offered.