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Patient interview

How to draw a family history pedigree

Other platforms explain it with text and video. In Making Synapses you practice it on the patient.

MD / DOPANursing (NCLEX)
Practice it in VR with Blocky

A three-generation pedigree shows inherited risk at a glance.

Step by step

  1. Explain why

    Family history helps estimate risk and plan screening. [1]

  2. Start with the patient

    Square for male, circle for female, arrow for the patient. [2]

  3. Add three generations

    Parents, siblings, children, grandparents, aunts and uncles. [2]

  4. Health information

    Diseases and age at diagnosis; deaths with age and cause (line through the symbol). [2]

  5. Key conditions

    Early heart disease, cancers, diabetes, clotting, genetic conditions. [2]

  6. Ancestry and consanguinity

    Ethnic background and related parents. [2]

  7. Look for patterns

    Several relatives, young age, both sides of the family. Refer to genetics if needed. [1]

Common errors

Practice it in Making Synapses

In Making Synapses you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.

Making Synapses cases that train this skill

Sources

  1. AAMC Core Entrustable Professional Activities (Core EPAs)
  2. NCCPA PANCE Content Blueprint
  3. NBOME COMLEX-USA clinical presentations

Facts and steps follow NBOME COMLEX-USA clinical presentations; NCCPA PANCE Content Blueprint; AAMC Core Entrustable Professional Activities (Core EPAs). Making Synapses is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.