title: Diagnosis.
abstract: The paper deals with the term Medical Diagnosis (D). It is the process of identifying a disease by its signs, symptoms and results of various diagnostic (laboratory or imaging) procedures. D. is part of clinical reasoning. It includes the following phases: 1. observation (anamnesis, medical examination); 2. problem determination; 3. hypotheses generation; 4. hypothesis control (through laboratory and imaging tests); 5. working D.; 6. therapeutic/caring decisions; 7. final D., 8. follow-up. In order to choose correctly a diagnostic test (DT), it is necessary to answer the following questions: 1. Is an evidence about the accuracy of a DT valid? 2. Does the valid evidence show that this test can accurately distinguish patients who do and do not have a specific disorder? 3. How applying a valid, accurate diagnostic test to a specific patient?
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Filosofia dell'Agire Scientifico e Tecnologico (FAST), University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Italy. v.tambone@unicampus.it
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tambone
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sacchini
mesh_terms: D003933:Diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D009626:Terminology as Topic