Objectives

After participating in this educational activity, attendees should be able to:

1| Recognize and mitigate diagnostic error

• • Identify cognitive biases (e.g., premature closure, anchoring) that contribute to misdiagnosis in complex, multisystem conditions such as hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
  • Develop strategies to maintain diagnostic openness over time
    (ACGME: Practice-Based Learning & Improvement)

2| Integrate empathy with diagnostic rigor

• • Examine how validation and reassurance can unintentionally reinforce incorrect diagnoses
  • Practice communication strategies that validate patient experience while preserving diagnostic flexibility
    (ACGME: Interpersonal & Communication Skills, Professionalism)

3| Address complexity and comorbidity explicitly

• • Identify common comorbidities and overlapping conditions that may be overlooked in patients labeled with a single unifying diagnosis
  • Understand the impact of delayed or missed diagnoses on long-term outcomes and disability
    (ACGME: Medical Knowledge, Systems-Based Practice)

4| Navigate barriers to re-evaluation

• • Analyze structural and cultural barriers that make it difficult to revisit diagnoses (e.g., hierarchy, time constraints, documentation inertia)
  • Propose strategies to support second opinions, longitudinal reassessment, and interdisciplinary input
    (ACGME: Systems-Based Practice)

5| Reflect on clinician discomfort with uncertainty

• • Explore how discomfort with not having answers can lead to premature certainty
  • Develop approaches to uncertainty without closing off further investigation, particularly with diagnoses of exclusion
    (ACGME: Professionalism, Practice-Based Learning & Improvement)

Facilitator
Dr. Stephen Ryzewicz
Internist AHMP
Baystate Medical Center

Panelists:

Caroline Norton, M.D. Candidate, Class of 2026 University of Massachusetts Medical School

Dr. Liam Burke, PCP Umass Memorial