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Medical diagnosis

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Medical diagnosis (abbreviated Dx or D S ) is the process of determining which disease or condition explains a person's symptoms and signs. It is most often referred to as diagnosis with the medical context being implicit. The information required for diagnosis is typically collected from a history and physical examination of the person seeking medical care. Often, one or more diagnostic procedures , such as medical tests, are also done during the process. Sometimes posthumous diagnosis is considered a kind of medical diagnosis. Diagnosis is often challenging, because many signs and symptoms are nonspecific. For example, redness of the skin (erythema), by itself, is a sign of many disorders and thus does not tell the healthcare professional what is wrong. Thus differential diagnosis, in which several possible explanations are compared and contrasted, must be performed. This involves the correlation of various pieces of information followed by the recognition and differentiation

Medical uses

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A diagnosis, in the sense of diagnostic procedure, can be regarded as an attempt at classification of an individual's condition into separate and distinct categories that allow medical decisions about treatment and prognosis to be made. Subsequently, a diagnostic opinion is often described in terms of a disease or other condition. (In the case of a wrong diagnosis, however, the individual's actual disease or condition is not the same as the individual's diagnosis.) A diagnostic procedure may be performed by various healthcare professionals such as a physician, physiotherapist, dentist, podiatrist, optometrist, nurse practitioner, healthcare scientist or physician assistant. This article uses diagnostician as any of these person categories. A diagnostic procedure (as well as the opinion reached thereby) does not necessarily involve elucidation of the etiology of the diseases or conditions of interest, that is, what caused the disease or condition. Such elucidation can be u

Procedure

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General components which are present in a diagnostic procedure in most of the various available methods include: Complementing the already given information with further data gathering, which may include questions of the medical history (potentially from other people close to the patient as well), physical examination and various diagnostic tests. A diagnostic test is any kind of medical test performed to aid in the diagnosis or detection of disease. Diagnostic tests can also be used to provide prognostic information on people with established disease. Processing of the answers, findings or other results. Consultations with other providers and specialists in the field may be sought. There are a number of methods or techniques that can be used in a diagnostic procedure, including performing a differential diagnosis or following medical algorithms.: 198 In reality, a diagnostic procedure may involve components of multiple methods.: 204 Differential diagnosis edit The method of differ

Adverse effects

Diagnosis problems are the dominant cause of medical malpractice payments, accounting for 35% of total payments in a study of 25 years of data and 350,000 claims. Overdiagnosis edit Overdiagnosis is the diagnosis of "disease" that will never cause symptoms or death during a patient's lifetime. It is a problem because it turns people into patients unnecessarily and because it can lead to economic waste (overutilization) and treatments that may cause harm. Overdiagnosis occurs when a disease is diagnosed correctly, but the diagnosis is irrelevant. A correct diagnosis may be irrelevant because treatment for the disease is not available, not needed, or not wanted. Errors edit Most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, according to a 2015 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Causes and factors of error in diagnosis are: the manifestation of disease are not sufficiently noticeable a disease is omitted from c

History

The first recorded examples of medical diagnosis are found in the writings of Imhotep (2630–2611 BC) in ancient Egypt (the Edwin Smith Papyrus). A Babylonian medical textbook, the Diagnostic Handbook written by Esagil-kin-apli (fl.1069–1046 BC), introduced the use of empiricism, logic and rationality in the diagnosis of an illness or disease. Traditional Chinese Medicine, as described in the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon or Huangdi Neijing, specified four diagnostic methods: inspection, auscultation-olfaction, interrogation, and palpation. Hippocrates was known to make diagnoses by tasting his patients' urine and smelling their sweat.

Word

Medical diagnosis or the actual process of making a diagnosis is a cognitive process. A clinician uses several sources of data and puts the pieces of the puzzle together to make a diagnostic impression. The initial diagnostic impression can be a broad term describing a category of diseases instead of a specific disease or condition. After the initial diagnostic impression, the clinician obtains follow up tests and procedures to get more data to support or reject the original diagnosis and will attempt to narrow it down to a more specific level. Diagnostic procedures are the specific tools that the clinicians use to narrow the diagnostic possibilities. The plural of diagnosis is diagnoses . The verb is to diagnose, and a person who diagnoses is called a diagnostician . Etymology edit The word diagnosis / d aɪ . ə ɡ ˈ n oʊ s ɪ s / is derived through Latin from the Greek word διάγνωσις ( diágnōsis ) from διαγιγνώσκειν ( diagignṓskein ), meaning "to discern, distinguish".

Society and culture

Social context edit Diagnosis can take many forms. It might be a matter of naming the disease, lesion, dysfunction or disability. It might be a management-naming or prognosis-naming exercise. It may indicate either degree of abnormality on a continuum or kind of abnormality in a classification. It's influenced by non-medical factors such as power, ethics and financial incentives for patient or doctor. It can be a brief summation or an extensive formulation, even taking the form of a story or metaphor. It might be a means of communication such as a computer code through which it triggers payment, prescription, notification, information or advice. It might be pathogenic or salutogenic. It's generally uncertain and provisional. Once a diagnostic opinion has been reached, the provider is able to propose a management plan, which will include treatment as well as plans for follow-up. From this point on, in addition to treating the patient's condition, the provider can educate the

Types

Sub-types of diagnoses include: Clinical diagnosis A diagnosis made on the basis of medical signs and reported symptoms, rather than diagnostic tests Laboratory diagnosis A diagnosis based significantly on laboratory reports or test results, rather than the physical examination of the patient. For instance, a proper diagnosis of infectious diseases usually requires both an examination of signs and symptoms, as well as laboratory test results and characteristics of the pathogen involved. Radiology diagnosis A diagnosis based primarily on the results from medical imaging studies. Greenstick fractures are common radiological diagnoses. Tissue diagnosis A diagnosis based on the macroscopic, microscopic, and molecular examination of tissues such as biopsies or whole organs. For example, a definitive diagnosis of cancer is made via tissue examination by a pathologist. Principal diagnosis The single medical diagnosis that is most relevant to the patient's chief complaint or need