Health psychology/Cognitive biases · Clinical reasoning

Diagnostic momentum

What it means

A diagnostic label, once attached, becomes progressively harder to remove as it is passed from person to person, accumulating certainty.

Worked example

"COPD exacerbation" carried through three handovers until no one re-examines the actually-cardiac patient.

In the exam

A label of "infective exacerbation of COPD" is passed across several shifts and accepted unquestioned, until the patient’s heart failure is finally recognised.

What settles it

Diagnostic momentum is a label gathering certainty over TIME/handovers. Framing is the immediate effect of how one presentation is worded.

Classically confused with

Framing effect

Source: Croskerry