Diagnostic Reasoning in Neurologic Consultation

Neurologists consulting on patients with systemic disease should be aware of particular cognitive biases that can lead to misdiagnosis in this context, such as overapplication of Occam's razor, overly narrow framing of a case because of the specific consult question, oversimplification of the case if the consult question is posed as a "curbside" consult, failure to consider less common diagnoses when the signal-to-noise ratio is typically low for the consult question and context, and overlooking potential diagnoses because of the location in which the patient presents within the hospital.