Twelve tips for presenting a clinical problem solving exercise

Lectures are moderately effective for teaching medical knowledge but generally fail at promoting clinical reasoning. In a clinical problem solving (CPS) conference, a clinician is presented an unknown medical case in a stepwise fashion. These popular conferences highlight clinical reasoning and foster active learning to a greater degree than lecture-based education.

In the absence of literature which addresses the organization of these conferences, we present a guide for the teacher (case presenter) to maximize the session's educational value.

Practical issues for case selection, preparation, and presentation are addressed. The predominant theme is to retain an emphasis on real-time reasoning and to minimize the artificial nature of solving an unknown case from presented material rather than a live patient.

The successful execution of the CPS engages both the audience and the discussant in real-time problem solving and relies upon the tenants of experiential learning and clinical reasoning rather than the traditional structure of the medical case presentation.