Recent quotes:

Availability heuristic

Emergency department physicians who saw patients with a pulmonary embolism -- a blood clot in the lung -- were about 15% likelier over the next 10 days to test subsequent patients for the same thing. Rules of thumb, also known as heuristics, could influence how physicians deliver care. One such rule of thumb is the "availability heuristic," under which a person assesses an event's likelihood by how easily the event comes to mind. For physicians, recent conditions seen may be particularly notable. Under this heuristic, if a physician sees a condition in a recent patient, they may be more likely to test for the condition in the next patient they see.