Fuzzy cognitive maps: a tool to improve diagnostic decisions

Anticipating that the problem of diagnostic errors will not easily be solved through education, debiasing techniques or incentives-based systems, experts have proposed the systematic use of decision support tools (or decision aids) in medical practice. These tools are active knowledge resources that use patient data to generate case-specific advice to support clinical decision making. We argue that designing these decision support tools incorporates both discrete, analytical information as well as intuitive elements that would optimize their impact on clinical everyday activities. The use of fuzzy cognitive maps should allow developers to achieve this aim, by incorporating published evidence, intuition and qualitative assessment in a low-cost software program that could be implemented in various clinical settings.