Dr. McQuade is a clinician-educator who practices hospital medicine on both direct-care and teaching services at UPMC. He has interest in teaching patients with cardiovascular diseases, particularly acute decompensated heart failure, who are admitted to the hospital. The use of point of care ultrasound to help aid diagnostic decisions and to guide procedures is also of interest to Dr. McQuade.
Dr. McQuade educates both residents and medical students while attending on inpatient services at UPMC. He has a particular interest in teaching clinical reasoning to students and trainees. Dr. McQuade runs the Internal Medicine Residency's monthly Clinical Reasoning Conference series, which presents an unknown clinical vignette to experienced clinicians with a focus on reasoning concepts. He also runs the residency's popular Certificate Program in Clinical Reasoning, which provides advanced training in clinical reasoning.
Dr. McQuade's primary research interest focuses on the improvement of clinical reasoning education at the undergraduate and graduate medical education levels. More specifically, he is most interested in how problem representation skills develop in trainees and how trainees develop expertise over time. Secondarily, he is also interested in the use of AI to aid trainees in developing their clinical reasoning skills, and how the introduction of AI into the clinical environment will influence medical decision-making.
- BS, Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 2012
- MD, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, 2016
- Internal Medicine Residency, UPMC Presbyterian/Shadyside, 2019
- Chief Medical Resident, UPMC Presbyterian/Shadyside, 2020
- MS Ed, University of Pittsburgh Institute for Clinical Research Education, 2023
Education & Training
McQuade CN, Simonson MG, Ehrenberger KA, Kohli A. Developing an interactive, asynchronous case discussion format on social media to teach clinical reasoning: A mixed-methods assessment. JMIR Medical Education. 20203; e45277.
McQuade CN, Bonifacino E. Reasoning on rounds: Summary statement or problem representation. JGIM. 2023; 39(4):714.
McQuade CN, Simonson MG, Lister J, Olson APJ, Zwaan L, Rothenberger S, Bonifacino E. Characteristics differentiating problem representation synthesis between novices and experts. Journal of Hospital Medicine. 20204: 19(6):468-474.
Skittle C, Bonifacino E, McQuade CN. Medical language matters: Impact of clinical summary composition on a generative artificial intelligence's diagnostic accuracy. Diagnosis. 20204: 12(2):277-281.
Buckley P, McQuade CN. Empowering residents-as-teachers with artificial intelligence tools: An innovative workshop. Academic Psychiatry. 2025; Online ahead of print.
- UPMC GME Leadership Conference Frank J Croboth Award, 2019
- UPMC Internal Medicine Residency Outstanding Teaching Attending Award, 2021
- Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine Fellowship in Diagnostic Excellence, 2021
- UPSOM Clerkship Preceptor of the Year Award, 2023
