The Clinical Problem Solvers is a global medical education initiative dedicated to enhancing diagnostic reasoning skills among healthcare professionals. Founded in 2018, the platform offers a podcast series that delves into the intricacies of clinical problem-solving through unscripted case discussions, expert interviews, and thematic episodes.
Haematology, oncology and medical-education readers get a structured approach to diffuse retroperitoneal and inguinal lymphadenopathy. The episode links clinical-radiographic mismatch, blood-test diagnoses before biopsy, high-yield tissue sampling, indolent lymphoma and professional boundaries when diagnostic uncertainty affects family.
Critical-care, haematology and infectious-diseases clinicians get a diagnostic reasoning case around ultrahyperferritinaemia, suspected secondary HLH, disseminated herpesvirus infection, cytopenias, liver injury, DIC and shock in an immunosuppressed patient with lupus nephritis. It emphasises red-flag back pain, diagnostic pivots, returning-traveller infection work-up and avoiding anchoring on autoimmune flare.
Acute medicine, rheumatology and orthopaedic teams get an anatomical approach to atraumatic posterior elbow swelling. Preserved movement supports olecranon bursitis over primary joint disease, but cirrhosis, kidney failure and chronic oedema lower the threshold for ultrasound, aspiration and fluid analysis when treatment fails.
Acute-care, neurology and cardiology clinicians get a diagnostic reasoning case beginning with sudden dense right hemiplegia. Intracerebral haemorrhage, multifocal infarcts, a right atrial and pericardial mass and metastatic angiosarcoma reinforce stroke-pathway urgency, review of previous records and the limits of a single negative cytology result.
A professional-development piece for clinicians weighing career choices, burnout, job fit, networking and negotiation. It reframes values as concrete priorities, including flexibility, autonomy, teaching, stability and sustainability, then links those values to offers, trade-offs and contract discussions.
Exertional lightheadedness is framed as a perfusion symptom, not just vague dizziness. The case links syncope, new ECG abnormalities, right ventricular strain and saddle pulmonary embolism, with a clear warning against accepting dehydration too early.
Major soft-tissue bleeding after minor trauma plus isolated prolonged activated partial thromboplastin time should change the plan. Recurrent haematomas need coagulation testing, mixing studies and factor assays, while a tense painful forearm with paraesthesia or passive-stretch pain needs immediate surgical escalation.
Severe apparent desaturation after rasburicase is worth choosing when oxygen numbers do not match the bedside picture. It links suspected acute leukaemia, G6PD deficiency, methaemoglobinaemia, co-oximetry and hyperleukocytosis-related pseudohypoxaemia.
Open this first when abdominal distension comes with weight loss, jaundice and oedema. High-protein portal hypertensive ascites, raised JVP with clear lungs, low-voltage ECG with ventricular hypertrophy and protein gap should move the case towards Budd-Chiari syndrome, cardiac amyloidosis and light-chain myeloma.
Atraumatic hip pain that disappears can still be the first visible part of systemic infection. Persistent fever, night sweats, weight loss, oral ulcers, splenomegaly and migratory oligoarthritis make travel and unpasteurised dairy exposure worth asking about.
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