Other pointers

Other pointers worth remembering include:

• common things occur commonly: uncommon presentations of common things occur more often than common presentations of rare conditions
  
  
• simple conditions are caused by simple problems
  
  
• Occam's razor: multiple symptoms and signs are more likely due to a single disease than multiple pathologies
  
  
• when all else fails, read the instructions: refer to textbooks, journals, computers and colleagues