patient case report

by Sedrick Rutherford 5 min read

How to write a patient case report - PubMed

22 hours ago Purpose: Guidelines for writing patient case reports, with a focus on medication-related reports, are provided. Summary: The format of a patient case report encompasses the following five sections: an abstract, an introduction and objective that contain a literature review, a description of the case report, a discussion that includes a detailed explanation of the literature review, a … >> Go To The Portal


Case report. In medicine, a case report is a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports may contain a demographic profile of the patient, but usually describe an unusual or novel occurrence.

A case report is a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports usually describe an unusual or novel occurrence and as such, remain one of the cornerstones of medical progress and provide many new ideas in medicine.

Full Answer

How to write a case study on a patient?

Writing Your Patient Case Study

  1. Work on Your Introduction Select a case. You have to identify your focus and scope for the study. ...
  2. Get to Know the Participants You can have one or multiple case participants. ...
  3. Perform Data Analyses Method Your results will depend on your interpretation of the raw data. ...
  4. Report the Case Study Results

How to write a patient care report?

Patient-Centered Care Report example

  • Attach a reference list to your report. ...
  • Describe the outcomes that were not achieved, the extent to which they fell short of expectations, and any variance across demographic groups.
  • Identify the factors (for example: institutional, community, environmental, resources, communication) that may have contributed to any achievement shortfalls. ...

More items...

How to write a medical case report?

Writing up. Write up the case emphasising the interesting points of the presentation, investigations leading to diagnosis, and management of the disease/pathology. Get input on the case from all members of the team, highlighting their involvement. Also include the prognosis of the patient, if known, as the reader will want to know the outcome.

How to review a case report?

related reports, are provided. SUMMARY: The format of a patient case report encompasses the following five sections: an abstract, an introduction and objective that contain a literature review, a description of the case report, a discussion that includes a detailed explanation of the literature review, a summary of the case, and a conclusion.

How do you write a patient case report?

III. Patient case presentationDescribe the case in a narrative form.Provide patient demographics (age, sex, height, weight, race, occupation).Avoid patient identifiers (date of birth, initials).Describe the patient's complaint.List the patient's present illness.List the patient's medical history.More items...•

What is a patient case?

A patient case presentation is a demonstration of a learner's knowledge and skills related to the management of disease states and drug therapies through application to an actual patient case. Typical Information Included in a Patient Case Presentation. 1.

What is meant by case report?

Listen to pronunciation. (kays reh-PORT) A detailed report of the diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports also contain some demographic information about the patient (for example, age, gender, ethnic origin).

How do you introduce a patient in a case study?

First, we describe the complaint that brought the patient to us. It is often useful to use the patient's own words. Next, we introduce the important information that we obtained from our history-taking. We don't need to include every detail – just the information that helped us to settle on our diagnosis.

What is patient case study?

a case study can be defined as an intensive study about a person, a group of people or a unit, which is aimed to generalize over several units'.1 A case study has also been described as an intensive, systematic investigation of a single individual, group, community or some other unit in which the researcher examines in ...

What is a case in healthcare?

[kās] a particular instance of a disease or other problem; sometimes used incorrectly to designate the patient with the disease.

What is the importance of case reports?

Case reports are valuable resources of unusual information that may lead to new research and advances in clinical practice. Many journals and medical databases recognize the time-honored importance of case reports as a valuable source of new ideas and information in clinical medicine.

What is the purpose of the case report form?

A Case Report Form (CRF) is a printed or electronic document that is created and used in clinical trial research to capture standardised clinical data from each patient separately and to transfer it to Data Management.

What is case sheet in hospital?

A document recording a patient's medical history; also in extended use.

What should a patient case study include?

Case: This section provides the details of the case in the following order:Patient description.Case history.Physical examination results.Results of pathological tests and other investigations.Treatment plan.Expected outcome of the treatment plan.Actual outcome.

What is the difference between case study and case report?

Case studies are widely used in psychology to provide insight into unusual conditions. A case study, also known as a case report, is an in depth or intensive study of a single individual or specific group, while a case series is a grouping of similar case studies / case reports together.

What is an example of a case study?

Prospective case study methods are those in which an individual or group of people is observed in order to determine outcomes. For example, a group of individuals might be watched over an extended period of time to observe the progression of a particular disease.

What is a patient case study?

Writing Your Patient Case Study. Since patient case studies are generally descriptive, they are under the a phenomenological principle. This means that subjectivity is entertained and allowed in research design. The medical scenarios are open to the researcher’s interpretation and input of insights.

How do case studies make a difference in the medical arena?

Patient case studies make a difference in the medical arena by reporting clinical interactions that can improve medical practices, suggest new health projects, as well as provide a new research direction. By looking at an event as it exists in the natural setting, case studies shed understanding on a complex medical phenomenon.

What is case study in medical?

It is a well-established empirical research approach that illuminates a stand-out case of a subject or a group of subjects. In the end, it seeks to introduce new information for the understanding of the nature of a disease or medical condition in the context of someone who has lived it. Patient case studies make a difference in the medical arena by reporting clinical interactions that can improve medical practices, suggest new health projects, as well as provide a new research direction. By looking at an event as it exists in the natural setting, case studies shed understanding on a complex medical phenomenon.

What is a case study?

Case studies are a qualitative research method that offers a complete and in-depth look into some of the situations that baffled medical science. They document the cases that escape the ordinary in a hospital that has seen a manifold of plights. They serve as cautionary tales of the intricacy in dealing with human health.

Why are case studies important?

However, case studies offer a comprehensive and exhaustive treatment on a complicated subject matter in a real-life setting. This research method lets you gain an appreciation for a concept beyond what cold, hard facts can provide. There is no single approach to science and knowledge.

Why do medical practitioners use case studies?

Medical practitioners use case studies to examine a medical condition in the context of a research question. They perform research and analyses that adhere to the scientific method of investigation and abide by ethical research protocols. The following are case study samples and guides on case presentation.

Should you look into all possible explanations for a medical condition?

You should look into all of the possible explanations for the medical condition at hand. If a plight can be explained by more than one reason , then you have to look into the less obvious but similarly compelling explanations. Make your case study as informative as possible.

How many paragraphs should a patient share their perspective?

The patient should share their perspective on the treatment (s) they received in one to two paragraphs. It is often best to ask for informed consent and the patient’s perspective before you begin writing your case report. Appendices (If indicated). Submission to a scientific journal.

What is follow up and outcomes?

Follow-up and outcomes: describe the clinical course of the episode of care during follow-up visits including (1) intervention modification, interruption, or discontinuation; (2) intervention adherence and how this was assessed; and (3) adverse effects or unanticipated events. Regular patient report outcome measurement surveys such as PROMIS® may be helpful.

Is it easier to write sections of a case report in a different sequence than the order in which the sections?

Know that it is easier to write the sections of a case report in a different sequence than the order in which the sections appear in a published case report.

Is it easy to write a case report?

Writing a case report accurately and transparently is not easy. We provide online training in writing case reports at Scientific Writing in Health and Medicine (SWIHM) which includes access to CARE-writer, an online app that can be used to write case reports or case report preprints.

Can you submit a case report to a scientific journal?

Follow author guidelines and journal submission requirements when writing and submitting your case report to a scientific journal. You may wish to contact the journal before submitting your manuscript. (Download a partial list of journals that accept case reports.) Journals that do not explicitly accept case reports may publish case reports as components of other articles. Online training in writing case reports is available from Scientific Writing in Health and Medicine (SWIHM).

What is a case report?

A case report is a detailed report of the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Case reports usually describe an unusual or novel occurrence and as such, remain one of the cornerstones of medical progress and provide many new ideas in medicine. Some reports contain an extensive review of the relevant literature on the topic. The case report is a rapid short communication between busy clinicians who may not have time or resources to conduct large scale research.

What is the conclusion of a case report?

A case report ends with a conclusion or with summary points, depending on the journal's specified format. This section should briefly give readers the key points covered in the case report. Here, the author can give suggestions and recommendations to clinicians, teachers, or researchers. Some journals do not want a separate section for the conclusion: it can then be the concluding paragraph of the Discussion section.

Why do we publish cases?

The most common reasons for publishing a case are the following: 1) an unexpected association between diseases or symptoms; 2) an unexpected event in the course observing or treating a patient; 3) findings that shed new light on the possible pathogenesis of a disease or an adverse effect; 4) unique or rare features of a disease; 5) unique therapeutic approaches; variation of anatomical structures.

Do you need informed consent for a case report?

Informed consent in an ethical requirement for most studies involving humans, so before you start writing your case report, take a written consent from the patient as all journals require that you provide it at the time of manuscript submission. In case the patient is a minor, parental consent is required. For adults who are unable to consent to investigation or treatment, consent of closest family members is required.

What Is a Patient Care Report?

We often hear of care reports based on by medical teams or by medical authorities. Yet, we are not sure how this differs from the kind of report that is given to us by the same people. So this is the time to make it as clear as possible.

How to Write a Patient Care Report?

Where do you even begin when you write a patient care report? A lot of EMS or EMTs do know how to write one since they are trained to do so.

What is a patient care report?

A patient care report is a document made mostly by the EMS or EMTs. This documented report is done after getting the call. This consists of the information necessary for the assessment and evaluation of a patient’s care.

What should not be written in a patient care report?

What should be avoided in a patient care report is making up the information that is not true to the patient. This is why you have to be very careful and very meticulous when writing these kinds of reports. Every detail counts.

Who is in charge of reading the patient care report?

The person or the people who will be reading the report are mostly medical authorities. When you are going to be passing this kind of report, make sure that you have all the information correctly. One wrong information can cause a lot of issues and problems.

What is a case report?

What is a case report? A medical case report, also known as a case study, is a detailed description of a clinical encounter with a patient. The most important aspect of a case report, i.e. the reason you would go to the trouble of writing one, is that the case is sufficiently unique, rare or interesting such that other medical professionals will learn something from it.

What is required to submit a case report?

Journals often have specific requirements for publishing case reports, which could include a requirement for informed consent, a letter or statement from the IRB and other things.

Why is it important to write a case report?

the reason you would go to the trouble of writing one, is that the case is sufficiently unique, rare or interesting such that other medical professionals will learn something from it.

Does CHM have funding for publication?

It is best practice to check the journal's Info for Authors section or Author Center to determine what the cost is to publish. CHM does NOT have funds to support publication costs, so this is an important step if you do not want to pay out of pocket for publishing.

Do you need informed consent for a case report?

Although not technically required, especially if the case report does not include any identifying information, some journals require informed consent for all case reports. The CARE guidelines recommend obtaining informed consent AND the patient's perspective on the treatment/outcome (if possible).

Do journals have informed consent?

Journals may have their own informed consent form that they would like you to use, so please look for this when selecting a journal. Once you've identified the case, selected an appropriate journal (s), and considered informed consent, you can collect the required information to write the case report.

Does HIPAA apply to case reports?

First, you will be collecting protected health information, thus HIPAA applies to case reports. Spectrum Health has created a very helpful guidance document for case reports, which you can see here: Case Report Guidance - Spectrum Health. While this guidance document was created by Spectrum Health, the rules and regulations outlined could apply ...

What is a case report?

Case Report: A Beginner’s Guide with Examples. A case report is a descriptive study that documents an unusual clinical phenomenon in a single patient. It describes in details the patient’s history, signs, symptoms, test results, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment.

How does a case report affect us?

In his book Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion, Paul Bloom explains how a powerful story affects our emotions, can distort our judgement and even lead us to make bad moral choices.

What happened to Gage after the accident?

After the accident, Gage became profane, rough and disrespectful to the extent that he was no longer tolerable to people around him . So he lost his job and his family.

Why are case reports important?

Case reports are great to get first impressions that can generate new hypotheses (e.g. detecting a potential side effect of a drug) or challenge existing ones (e.g. shedding the light on the possibility of a different biological mechanism of a disease).

Why do we need case reports?

Case reports offer, in general a fast, easy and cheap way to report an unusual observation or a rare event in a clinical setting, as these have very small probability of being detected in an experimental study because of limitations on the number of patients that can be included.

When a case report describes a rare event, it is important to remember that what we’re reading about is?

When a case report describes a rare event it is important to remember that what we’re reading about is exceptional and most importantly resist generalizations especially because a case report is, by definition, a study where the sample is only 1 patient.

Which type of report has the lowest level of evidence?

Because of these limitations, case reports have the lowest level of evidence compared to other study designs as represented in the evidence pyramid below:

What is a clinical case report?

The clinical case report has been an integral part of medical literature throughout history. The oldest example of a preserved clinical case in medical literature is a text from an ancient Egyptian papyrus dating from the 16thto the 17thdynasty, 1600 BC, addressing the management of dislocated jawbone.[5] From Hippocratic case histories, “Epidemics” 400 BC, through Galenic case reports, in the second century AD, case reports were usually used to tell other doctors or colleagues about interesting cases they have encountered. Muslim scholars have reported case histories as well, particularly, Abu Bakr Mohamed Ibn Zakariya Al-Razi (865–929 AD), where he left a large collection of case reports in his 25-volume medical encyclopedia “Kitab Al-Hawi.”[5]

What is a case report?

The case report is a research design where an unexpected or novel occurrence is described in a detailed report of findings, clinical course, and prognosis of an individual patient, which might be, but not mandatory, accompanied by a review of the literature of other reported cases. Although case reports are considered the lowest in the hierarchy of evidence-based practice in the medical literature [Figure 1], it provides essential information for unfamiliar events and shared individual experiences, for better understanding and optimizing patient care. This approach might generate an idea or hypothesis, but it will not be confirmed unless we conduct further confirmatory quantitative experimental or observational study designs such as clinical trials or cohort studies. Despite that, case report provides the medical community with information which cannot be picked up by any other designs. Just to name a few, in 1819, James Parkinson published a case report entitled “An essay on the shaking palsy”[6] and lead to the discovery of Parkinson's disease. And in 1981, a case report was published in the literature as “Preliminary communication on extensively disseminated Kaposi sarcoma in a young homosexual man”[7] few years later, HIV from this case report was discovered. Furthermore, in 2012, Ali Zaki reported an article in New England Journal of Medicine titled “Isolation of a novel coronavirus from a man with pneumonia in Saudi Arabia” which ultimately, lead to the discovery of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus.[8] All those previous examples show how important is case report in the advancement of medical practice. The case report might be in the tail of the hierarchy of evidence-based medicine but if properly selected and appropriately reported it might stand a better chance of publication in high impact journals than even a clinical trial.

How to know if a case is appropriate for reporting?

Once you have a potential case, how would you know if this is an appropriate for reporting or not? Especially if you are a novice physician, once you encounter a possible case and you are suspecting if this patient fulfills one of those criteria which are described in Table 1. The first step is a high index of suspicion; keep your eyes open for every case, once you suspect a case then ask your colleagues either directly or in a group related to the same discipline, locally, to confirm that this could be a case report. The next step would be asking an expert from the national or international medical community about this case scenario, get their opinion and feedback, including the appropriateness of reporting this case. Once the feedback is positive, perform extensive literature search, through PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, and databases for case reports to ensure that you retrieve all available information on this topic. Do not forget to look at popular case reports which are not indexed in PubMed and read through previously published case reports that will enhance your understanding of the subject and gives you a general scaffold to prepare your own report.

How many words should a case report be?

The word count for case report may vary from one journal to another, but generally should not exceed 1500 words, therefore, your final version of the report should be clear, concise, and focused, including only relevant information with enough details.[3] If a shorter version is required by the journal, then you can always edit or trim off the discussion section of your article. The general format adopted for most case reports is detailed in the following subsection and summarized as a checklist in Table 2.

How long to wait to write a case report?

Give the case an appropriate time frame in the course of the disease to observe the development over time. Wait for 6 months during multiple visits, before you start writing a case report to allow adequate time to complete the clinical course.

Why is case report important?

Case report, as a research design, describes important scientific observations that are encountered in a clinical setting to expand our knowledge base. Preparing a case report is far easier than conducting any other elaborative research design. Case report, with its main components, should be focused and delivers a clear message. In this article, the key components of a case report were described with the aim of providing guidance to novice authors to improve the quality of their reporting.

Is a case report qualitative or quantitative?

Some scientist classifies case reports as a qualitative study design, others might consider it a quantitative approach or even a mixed method design.[9] This polarization of the case report is unfair. However, if we have to categorize it; when we consider all research approaches in medicine, it can be classified into exploratory or confirmatory; then, case reports definitely will be considered an exploratory research approach. Case report can be classified as a single case report, two case reports or case series, which aggregate more than two cases in a report. Case reports are usually retrospective by nature, however, it can be prospectively designed, for example, applying a new diagnostic or management approach or guideline of a particular health condition to discover new cases.[10]

What is a first aid incident report?

The First-Aid Incident Report template contains injured person's personal details and contact details, the details and visible symptoms of injury, the Glasgow Coma Scale which is a neurological scale that expects to give a dependable and target method for chronicle the condition of an individual's awareness and brief information of treatment. Also, it contains the profile of the first-aider and signature of the person who prepares the report. Plus, Jotform is HIPAA-compliant and that is gigantic in addition to for anybody in the medicinal services industry.

What is a dental health record template?

The Dental Health Record Template is easy for patients to fill out and designed to get the doctor the most important information. Patients can fill out their information on a computer or tablet using our Dental Health Record Template.

Why use a medical history record PDF?

Medical History Record PDF template is mostly used in order to provide significant information about the health history, care requirements, and risk factors of the patient to doctors. It is for collecting data from the patients.

What is a medical history document?

A comprehensive document providing the patients’ past medical history, personal and contact details, health information, habits, living standards and family medical history with their consent to the terms and conditions.

Can you record medical history as a PDF?

Once you have collected these medical data, you can record them as a pdf by using this medical history PDF template. In addition, you don't need to be worried about the safety of data, because our forms are HIPAA compliant.

Can hospitals use PDF forms?

Many hospitals rely on paper-based forms for this task. Others use online forms while some also use PDF forms. So, here’s a collection of PDF form templates that you can use as a starting point. There are a plethora of questions to be asked but what’s nice about using a template is the freedom to customize it. To top it all off, you get to start with beautiful and well-designed PDF templates, for free.

Abstract

  • Published patient case reports provide essential sources of information for the optimum care of patients because case reports can describe important scientific observations that are missed or are undetectable in clinical trials, provide insightful information that expands our knowledge and spawns new research, and provide information that strays from the classical textbook case and …
See more on academic.oup.com

Format of The Patient Case Report

  • Case reports should encompass the following five sections: an abstract, an introduction and objective with a literature review, a description of the case report, a discussion that includes a detailed explanation of the literature review, a summary of the case, and a conclusion.6,7 Supplementary parts such as tables, figures, graphs, and illustrations provide essential data an…
See more on academic.oup.com

Summary

  • Patient case reports are valuable resources of new and unusual information that may lead to vital research and advances in clinical practice that improve patient outcomes. Case reports should contain an abstract and four sections—an introduction, case presentation, discussion, and conclusion. The introduction provides the subject, purpose, and meri...
See more on academic.oup.com

Conclusion

  • Patient case reports are valuable resources of new and unusual information that may lead to vital research.
See more on academic.oup.com

Appendix A—Criteria For Publishable Case Reports

  • Publishable patient case reports include cases that: 1. Advance medical science and spawn research; 2. Describe rare, perplexing, or novel diagnostic features of a disease state; 3. Report therapeutic challenges, controversies, or dilemmas; 4. Describe a new surgical procedure; 5. Report how a drug can enhance a surgical procedure; 6. Teach humanistic lessons to the health …
See more on academic.oup.com