Happy Medics UK Medical Education
Acute Medicine Course
Diagnostic error isn’t a knowledge problem. It’s a reasoning problem.
14 diagnostic frameworks for acute medicine. A structured approach to the undifferentiated patient – built for the realities of high-volume, high-pressure clinical environments.
✔️ CPD-accredited up to 21 CPD points.
✔️ Aligned with NICE, BTS, ESC and UK national guidelines
✔️ 14 downloadable diagnostic frameworks
✔️ Blended learning format: 7 modules + full-day live teaching
7 modules. 14 hours of on-demand teaching. A full-day live session with case-based reasoning and clinical decision-making. Complete the course around your shifts.
Why Choose Us
What doctors are saying about us
Jake W
Resident Doctor
Great guideline discussions!
“I knew guidelines before, but I couldn’t pull them together under pressure. The course gave me a repeatable structure for common presentations.”
Anjana S.
Resident Doctor
Highly recommended!
“I had my own way of working through cases, but this gave me a structure I can actually rely on, especially when the presentation isn’t textbook.”
Dhivyaa S.
Resident Doctor
Really clear lectures
“Electrolytes used to be my weak spot. The frameworks made something that felt random feel logical.”
Nabiil A.
Resident Doctor
Helped improve critical thinking
“My critical thinking has improved. I can see how the concepts apply to real patients, not just theory.”
The Problem
Diagnostic Error and Diagnostic Delay Are Not Rare Events
Most of the time, your clinical reasoning works. You’ve developed your own mental models. You know the guidelines. You can manage the bread-and-butter presentations.
But diagnostic error and diagnostic delay are well-documented problems in acute medicine – and they don’t only happen to inexperienced doctors.
They happen when presentations are atypical. When cognitive load is high. When you’re fatigued, managing multiple patients simultaneously, and making decisions with incomplete information.
The conditions that produce diagnostic error – time pressure, high acuity, undifferentiated presentations – are the normal working conditions of the acute take.
The question isn’t whether you’re a good doctor. The question is whether your reasoning has a structure that holds up under those conditions, or whether it depends on the pattern fitting.
52% of of our surveyed doctors say “handling uncertainty in undifferentiated patients” is the hardest thing to learn on the job.
90% fall into the “somewhat confident” to “hesitant” range on acute takes.
The Method
Framework-based Diagnostic Reasoning
Patients present with symptoms, not diagnoses. But most medical education is organised by disease.
This course bridges that gap. Each of the 14 frameworks takes a presenting complaint – chest pain, dyspnoea, AKI, headache – and gives you a structured method for generating a differential, directing investigations, identifying red flags, and making management decisions.
The frameworks are not algorithms. They don’t replace clinical judgement. They give your clinical judgement a repeatable structure – one that works the same way whether it’s 10am or 3am, whether you’re fresh or twelve hours into a take.
Patients don’t present with diagnoses. They present with symptoms. These frameworks start where your patients start.
The Method
What the Frameworks Do
Structure the differential
Each framework maps a presenting complaint to its diagnostic possibilities — organised by pathophysiology, not by what comes to mind first. You work through the problem, not around it.
Direct investigations toward clinical decisions
The focus is on investigations that change management. Which test confirms or excludes a diagnosis you’re actively considering – not a panel ordered by protocol.
Flag what you cannot afford to miss
Every framework identifies the high-risk diagnoses and the clinical features that should trigger escalation. These aren’t buried in the teaching – they’re the backbone of it.
Support defensible clinical decisions
Admit, discharge, refer, escalate – the frameworks help you reason through the decision and articulate why. That matters for patient safety. It also matters for your medicolegal documentation.
The Complete Framework Collection
The 14 Diagnostic Frameworks
Each framework gives you a structured approach to one acute presentation. They cover the presentations you’ll see most frequently on the acute take – and the ones where diagnostic error carries the highest risk.
and more…
All 14 frameworks are available as downloadable PDFs. Print them, keep them on your phone, use them on your next shift.
Who This Course is For
Designed for the Acute Medical Take
This course is designed for doctors managing undifferentiated patients in acute and general medicine. That includes Senior Clinical Fellows, Medical Registrars, and Internal Medicine Trainees.
Foundation Doctors, IMGs, JCFs and AHPs who have an interest in Acute Medicine may also wish to attend.
If you’re already managing acute takes and want a more structured approach to diagnostic reasoning – particularly for atypical or complex presentations – this course was built for you.
Only 3% of doctors we surveyed described themselves as ‘very confident’ managing acute presentations. The other 97% are not lacking knowledge. They’re lacking structure.
Be Both Confident and Competent
What Changes
You’re on the acute take. A patient arrives with a presentation that doesn’t fit neatly into one category. You’ve seen similar cases before, but something about this one is different.
Instead of defaulting to pattern recognition, you run through the framework. The differential is structured. The investigations are targeted. You know which diagnoses you’re actively ruling in or out, and you know what you’re not willing to miss.
You make a decision. You document your reasoning. You move to the next patient.
This is what framework-based reasoning looks like in practice. Not a transformation – just a more reliable version of what you’re already doing.
Course Details
Overview
- 14 hours of on-demand video teaching across 7 modules
- Full-day live case-based teaching session via Zoom
- 14 downloadable diagnostic frameworks
- CPD certificate – up to 21 points
- 6 months access to the full video library
Your investment: £150
Reason, don’t just recognise
Structured Reasoning for Acute Medicine
Diagnostic error in acute medicine is driven by the same conditions you work in every shift – time pressure, cognitive load, fatigue, and undifferentiated presentations.
These frameworks don’t make you a different doctor.
They give your reasoning a structure that doesn’t degrade under those conditions.
The thinking becomes consistent.
The decisions become defensible.
The presentations that used to feel uncertain start to feel manageable.
The #1 topic doctors we surveyed asked for? How to approach the “generally unwell” patient who doesn’t fit a neat category.
Have a question?
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How long do I have access?
6 months from the date of purchase. Enough time to work through the modules and attend the live session around your rota.
2. What if I can’t make the live session?
You’ll be offered a place in the next cohort. Your access to all video content continues in the meantime.
3. Is the CPD certificate recognised?
Yes. Issued directly via CPD UK, valid for appraisal and revalidation.
4. Who is the course designed for?
Doctors managing acute and general medical patients – SCFs, Medical Registrars, IMTs. Also suitable for IMGs working in UK acute settings and allied health professionals assessing undifferentiated patients.
5. What makes this different from other acute medicine courses?
Two things:
- First, the diagnostic frameworks: 14 structured approaches to common acute presentations that you can use on your next shift. They’re not theoretical models. They’re practical reasoning tools built from frontline clinical experience.
- Second, the format: on-demand videos you complete at your own pace, plus a full-day live session focused entirely on case-based reasoning and clinical decision-making.
The Newsletter
Not Ready to Commit? Start Here.
Download the A-E Assessment Guide + Chest Pain Framework – free.
What to do in the first 60 seconds of any acute presentation, plus a systematic approach to chest pain you can use on your next shift.
What you’ll get:
- Weekly Clinical Decisions Explained newsletter
- A-E Assessment Guide (practical, not textbook)
- Chest Pain Framework (one of 14 taught in the full course)
