The average positive predictive value of cancer-related gut feeling was 35%, and it increased with 2% with each year a patient becomes older, and with 3% with each year a GP becomes older. See this link.

Invited comment: In a letter to the editor of the Annals of Family Medicine, Marie Barais, Erik Stolper and Paul Van Royen give their comments on an article comparing the results of the Wells rule with the Gestalt. Their main criticism is that what the authors called Gestalt did not differ from what they measured… read more

Abstract of a literature study Background Diagnostic reasoning is one of the most important skills a doctor has to possess. Recent literature tells us that during the process of diagnostic reasoning, doctors use several methods, which can be classified along a continuum from analytical to non-analytical reasoning; this is known as the dual process theory…. read more

See our selective review of literature.

Can a gut feeling help to diagnose cancer? See our selected review of literature.

The accuracy of the general practitioner’s sense of alarm when confronted with dyspnoea and/or thoracic pain: protocol for a prospective observational study, published in the BMJ Open (see http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/3/e006810.long) (Marie Barais et al). The sensitivity, the specificity, the positive and negative likelihood ratio of the sense of alarm will be calculated from a constructed contingency table…. read more