Examining the neuroscientific correlates of clinical reasoning – an interview with Jerome Rotgans

Originally from the Netherlands where he obtained his PhD in Educational Psychology from Erasmus University Rotterdam, Jerome Rotgans is Assistant Professor of Medical Education Research at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Singapore where he is also the Assistant Dean for Assessment and Lead for Learning Strategies. Jerome is active in two research areas. The first is diagnostic reasoning in medicine. He and his colleagues have studied the effects of time pressure and interruptions on the diagnostic accuracy of physicians. Moreover, they have recently embarked on a neuroscience research programme to examine the neuroscientific correlates of clinical reasoning. The second research area revolves around active learning, such as team and problem-based learning, and how these instructional approaches influence student motivation and knowledge acquisition. Although Jerome devotes most of his time to research, he is passionate about education hopes the insights gained from this line of research will eventually be used to improve teaching diagnostic reasoning in medical students.