Cognitive Bias in EMS

In this episode of The Erik and Matt Show (EMS), Erik and Matt unpack the 12 cognitive biases that quietly drive missed diagnoses and bad calls in prehospital medicine. They cover anchoring, confirmation bias, premature closure, availability bias, framing, overconfidence, diagnostic momentum, action bias, search satisfaction, the Dunning-Kruger effect, authority bias, and sunk cost. Each bias is paired with a real field story, including Erik's anxiety patient who turned out to be in florid DKA, the SVT call that was actually WPW, the prolonged extrication where the patient was secretly having a STEMI and a fractured spleen, and Erik's now famous case of lecturing his medics about not anchoring while completely missing a necrotic appendix in the back of the ambulance.