Conversing with Life

Actionable Intelligence

Over morning coffee with my team, my consultant talked on the topic of actionable intelligence.

Actionable intelligence is the quest for knowledge or information which will make on impact on the management of the patient.

Information which does not alter the management of the patient is useless and should not be actively sought for.

Whereas information which will change the management, should be sought out and acted upon.

ie. Patient has had a total thyroidectomy. The serum calcium levels was done immediately post-op and was low. However patient is totally asymptomatic. Do you act on the result and replace calcium?

If the calcium levels was normal, but the patient exhibited signs of hypocalcemia. Do you not treat?

If the answer is no, why do we do the serum calcium? Why don't we just examine the patient clinically?

Is the serum calcium levels immediately post-op indicative of the actual calcium levels? And if it is not, why do we still take serum calcium post-op immediately?

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Don't worry if you are confused. I was confused when I heard it too. But it does provoke thought.

And sometimes I feel that the line between just investigating for the relevant problem and treating it VS investigating widely and ending up with a multitude of new problems is really thin.

And treading on that line is tough and needs experience.

Wei Qiang converses @ 19:33