Logical errors of the second type in the formation of a medical output

Abstract

The article is devoted to the evidence of the need to introduce a subject of formal logic into the pedagogical practice of medical universities. It is expected that this process will help to reduce the number of medical errors detected at all levels of providing medical care in the healthcare system. The traditional method of teaching students at medical universities for a long time included an analysis of the clinical manifestations of the disease under the guidance of a clinician teacher directly at the bed of a sick person. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a necessity to comply with strict insulation of patients, conduct measures to prevent cross-infection in hospitals, and also cause many ethical problems in the communication of patients with a student audience. All these factors made it difficult to carry out traditional techniques for teaching medicine and stimulated the introduction of a distance form of medical education. In this situation, the methodology for mastering the logical sequence of medical thinking has become especially relevant. The study's material included the diagnostic conclusions of 65 senior students (masters) studying at the Odessa National Medical University. Written or oral findings of young doctors were analyzed to determine the correct determination for the diagnosis of “virtual patients.” The validity of references to the nature of patients, the history of the disease, the history of life, and family history, as well as the interpretation of the symptoms of the disease, was taken into account. All cases of erroneous conclusions were evaluated for the logical causal relationship of the formation of a medical error. Statistical analysis showed that the bulk of the mistakes made—50.48%—refer to violation of the requirements of the second law of logic—“lack of mutual contradictions”; 7.62% to violation of the first law; 24.76% and 17.14% to violation of the requirements of the third and fourth laws, respectively. Significant dominance in the structure of medical errors of violations of the second law of logic requires careful consideration of its features and methods of neutralization to eliminate errors of this type in clinical practice. The work provides some examples of typical errors of the Second Law of Logic in the formation of a medical conclusion. The conclusion was made about the need to introduce the subject of “The Medical Logic” into the medical education program.