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In the age of evidence-based medicine, we may be tempted to dismiss intuition – the quick and automatic thought process we call “sixth sense” or “gut feeling” – as unscientific guesswork. But in clinical decision-making, intuitive reasoning is just as important as the slower and more analytical causal reasoning that healthcare professionals are trained in. In fact, without it we would hardly be able to formulate new hypotheses.

Together with Eugene van Puijenbroek from the Netherlands pharmacovigilance centre Lareb, we explore the role of intuitive reasoning in the science of drug safety.

Tune in to find out:

• How clinical and intuitive reasoning complement each other for optimal decision-making
• How adverse drug reaction reporting forms could be improved to detect intuitive reasoning
• How pharmacovigilance professionals can train their intuition

Want to know more?

Here are a few reading resources to get you started:

• A study on real cases of intuition in family medicine concluded that automatic, non-analytical processes in clinical judgment extend beyond first impressions.
• The dual-process theory highlights the importance of physicians’ intuition and the high level of interaction between analytical and non-analytical processes in clinical reasoning.
• Gut feelings may help general practitioners efficiently navigate the often complex and uncertain diagnostic situations of general practice.
• In a discussion paper on intuition and evidence, professor Trisha Greenhalgh suggests that the experienced practitioner should follow clinical hunches as well as applying the deductive principles of evidence-based medicine.

If you’d like to hear more from the Netherlands pharmacovigilance centre Lareb, check out this interview with Linda Härmark on patient reporting.

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Uppsala Monitoring Centre promotes safer use of medicines and vaccines for everyone everywhere. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Bluesky.