'Car Talk' for docs: Doctors trained to use the 'Click and Clack' method

Car fanatics treat their cars like people all the time, that's nothing new. But it's not often you hear of anybody treating people like cars. A new report from NPR details people in the medical field applying lessons learned from the legendary "Car Talk" radio show to the process of diagnosing patients.

Although "Car Talk," which featured Ray and Tom Magliozzi aka "Click and Clack," ended several years ago, its legacy is living on in a unexpected place. According to NPR, there are several doctors who are using the show's car diagnosis methodology in treatment centers.

Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and physician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center Dr. Gurpreet Dhaliwal has been a fan of the show since childhood and had an aha! moment once he became a doctor.

"I would listen to their podcast every weekend," Dhaliwal said. "One day I said to myself, 'My goodness, these guys are doing the same job I have.' They collect the data, define the problem, and pick from several solutions. That's essentially what a doctor does."

Well, when put that way, it is pretty similar. The difference being an incorrect diagnosis on a car could mean a bigger and more expensive problem to fix, and an incorrect diagnosis on a person means they could be injured or much worse.

Dhaliwal, who wrote a paper about his approach, reportedly plays parts of the show to students in order to teach clinical reasoning. In the most simple terms, it comes down to the problem, the history, and the possible fix.

Dhaliwal is just one of many who have made the link. To read about more doctors who have chosen a similar methodology, read the full article on NPR.