{"id":75201,"date":"2023-10-03T01:14:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T01:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/todaysveterinarybusiness.com\/?p=75201"},"modified":"2023-10-03T01:14:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-03T01:14:10","slug":"pattern-recognition-discharge-notes-1023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/navc.sitepreview.app\/todaysveterinarybusiness.com\/pattern-recognition-discharge-notes-1023\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble With Pattern Recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"

I sat on a wooden chair in the exam room about 5 feet from the frustrated young man and his trembling whippet. \u201cLooking at the chart,\u201d I said, \u201cI notice that Geralt seems to have these bouts of diarrhea every couple of months. Is there anything happening in his life around those times?\u201d The owner first shook his head ruefully and then stopped. His eyes went wide. \u201cYes! It\u2019s every time my parents come to visit! I wondered why he always followed my mom around. I bet she\u2019s buying his love with forbidden treats.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, we quickly resolved the case of Geralt the whippet\u2019s mysterious bouts of diarrhea.<\/p>\n

The Power of Pattern Recognition<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s amazing how rarely we solve problems by methodically processing information as opposed to spotting patterns. Any number of issues might cause Geralt\u2019s GI upset, but everything becomes clearer as soon as we learn that certain visitors come to the house around the time he tends to present for the issue.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the power of pattern recognition. We\u2019ve all taken pieces of information like those in Geralt\u2019s case, found the link between them and reached our conclusions, often to great effect. Pattern recognition is, after all, a hugely powerful tool and part of our evolutionary success as a species.<\/p>\n

In their book \u201cThe Phantom Pattern Problem,\u201d economist Gary Smith and data scientist Jay Cordes write: \u201cThe survival and reproductive payoffs from pattern recognition gave humans an evolutionary advantage over other animals. \u2026 Indeed, it has been argued that the cognitive superiority of humans over all other animals is due mostly to our evolutionary development of superior pattern processing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consider how often we get a diagnosis through a single definitive test (diagnosing an ear infection by visualizing bacteria on an ear cytology<\/a>) compared to how frequently we get a diagnosis from recognizing a pattern (diagnosing pancreatitis the day after Thanksgiving in a dehydrated miniature schnauzer with a painful abdomen and a history of vomiting for the past 16 hours). My point isn\u2019t that we only make predictions based on patterns, but that pattern recognition is a particularly handy and familiar tool for those who rely on logic and inductive reasoning.<\/p>\n

The Quest for Certainty<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I like the idea that each of us has a piece of our personality that arrived in our mind via a time capsule from the Stone Age. This piece of our consciousness shares (sometimes quite adamantly) the wisdom of our tribal ancestors. It grabs the steering wheel when we need our fight-or-flight response, and it has a lot to say about things, such as:<\/p>\n