Medical diagnosis

Medical diagnosis is the process of identifying a disease or health condition from symptoms, physical signs, medical history, and test results.

Differential diagnosis: A ranked set of conditions that could explain a patient's findings. Clinicians compare competing explanations before settling on one.
Symptom: A subjective experience of illness reported by a person. Symptoms supply the patient's account of what is wrong.
Screening (medicine): Testing people without symptoms to identify possible disease or elevated risk. Screening flags possible cases; diagnosis evaluates whether a condition is present.
Diagnostic error: A failure to establish an accurate and timely explanation of a patient's health problem. Errors can delay effective care or expose patients to unnecessary interventions.
Bayesian inference: A method of updating probabilities as new evidence becomes available. Test results change the likelihood assigned to each candidate condition.
Sign (medicine): An objective finding observed or measured by a clinician. Signs distinguish measurable findings from symptoms reported by patients.
Prognosis: An estimate of the likely course and outcome of a health condition. Diagnosis identifies a condition, while prognosis estimates what may happen next.
Overdiagnosis: The detection of a condition that would not have caused symptoms or harm during a person's lifetime. Finding clinically harmless disease can lead to needless treatment and distress.
Clinical decision support system: Software that provides clinicians with patient-specific information to support care decisions. These tools can organize findings and suggest diagnostic possibilities.
Clinical syndrome: A recognizable pattern of signs and symptoms that may have multiple causes. A syndrome can be identified even when its underlying cause remains unknown.

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