TABLE 1.

Characteristics of simple, complicated, and complex modes of clinical reasoning

Characteristic	Simple	Complicated	Complex
Causality	Single cause, linear	Multiple causes, linear	Multiple causes, cyclic, nonlinear
Certainty of diagnosis or treatment	High	Intermediate	Low
Importance of patient's history	Low	Low	High
Importance of patient's system	Low	Intermediate	High
No. of biopsychosocial scales (interactions) involved	Single scale	Single scale	Multiple scales
Prototypical examples	Ankle distortion, common cystitis	COPD exacerbation following pulmonary infection a complication of influenza; migraine caused by changes in work stress after moving to another city	Pneumonia and delirium in patient with Parkinson's disease, dysphagia, and COPD, and severe functional impairments, also in attention to eating
Complexity needed in clinical reasoning	Often pattern recognition, sometimes hypothetic‐deductive	Sometimes pattern recognition, often hypothetic‐deductive	Systems thinking