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The etiological concept of diseases and the methodology of treatment varies among the various systems of medicine. However, the mode of disease diagnosis (Nosological diagnosis) is common for several systems. It is a fact that the close association between disease diagnosis and remedial diagnosis prevailed in Modern medicine may possibly not be observed in other holistic systems, however, diagnosis is featuring its own importance even in other systems. The mode of treatment may be either holistic treatment, specific treatment, symptomatic treatment and general life support to the patient. Modern medicine gives more importance to the particular treatment, whereas, systems like Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Siddha, Unani, Chinese medicine, Naturopathy etc. give more importance to the holistic idea of treatment, i. e. remedy section by taking into consideration the physical, mental and emotional characters and life situation of the sick individual.
However, in these systems also, disease diagnosis is equally important, because, under certain situations, the functioning of the affected organ or the device of the human body has to be backed up. The individual also may require some specific type of support, for which the organ remedies are to be deployed. As well as that, disease diagnosis is important for planning the illness control measures, prognosis, special precautions, to understand the life span threatening situations, prevention of spreading of disease to others. Diagnosis is extremely essential for statistics, research and also to fulfill the academic interests. Especially, due with a medico-legal reasons, a doctor should know the detailed health status of his patient. Due to all these reasons, disease diagnosis is vital, aside from the system of treatment given to the patient.
Disease diagnosis and remedial diagnosis can be viewed as the two sides of the same coin, hence, both are having equal importance. Disease diagnosis is done by correlating the signs and outward indications of the patients (clinical features) with the information given by the bystanders and the lab investigation reports. On certain situations, there might be some difficulty in making a diagnosis, because, a number of diseases are having almost similar clinical features. Moreover, rarely occurring diseases or a newly emerged disease might not be identified easily, especially by a general practitioner. Under such circumstances, a specialist's opinion might be needed. Very rarely, a team of doctors are involved along the way of diagnosis.
It is extremely hard to mention each and every disease we come across inside our day to day practice. According to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), a notable percentage of diseases can't be named. Such cases, a diagnosis is achievable notwithstanding having several health related symptoms in the patient. Since the in-patient is suffering, he must be treated symptomatically. Some symptoms or conditions are wrongly understood as diseases by the laymen. For instance, clinical manifestations like jaundice, fever, vomiting, headache, malaise etc aren't diseases; but clinical manifestations of some diseases. The naming of diseases is performed on several basis. All of the diseases are named after the one who invented that specific disease (Buerger's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Weil's disease), some diseases on the foundation of area where in actuality the disease is common or identified for initially (African sleeping sickness, Madhura foot, Japanese encephalitis), on the foundation of some peculiarity of the outward symptoms (Chikungunya), or on the cornerstone of the organism responsible for the infection (Falsiparum malaria, Amoebic dysentery, Bacillary dysentery), or on the basis of the affected organ (Myocarditis, Nephritis, Appendicitis), on the foundation of cause(Alcoholic hepatitis, Wool-sorter's disease), on the cornerstone old (Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, Senile dementia), on the basis of pathology(Mixed connective tissue disease, Mucopolyscaccharidosis)etc.
If several specific signs and symptoms are present in someone, it is named syndrome (Edward syndrome, Down syndrome, Laurence-moon syndrome). Nowadays, we hardly stumbled upon a patient having an individual disease, whereas nearly all of patients are receiving a set of diseases such as for instance cardiovascular disease, diabetes, idiopathic hypertension, acid peptic disease, senile dementia, degenerative joint disease etc. Many diseases are classified under certain group of disorders. Like: Degenerative joint disorders, Inflammatory bowel disorders, Psychosomatic diseases, Life-style disorders etc. Here, each group includes several diseases, but are grouped together due to some common features such as for example pathological or etiological features.
Whenever a person concerns a doctor for initially, immediate disease diagnosis may not be possible because of various reasons. However, thinking about the presenting clinical features and history written by the patient, a doctor can come to a provisional disease diagnosis. After doing the laboratory investigations, the ultimate diagnosis is done by correlating the clinical findings with investigation reports. However the therapy is not kept in pending till the last diagnosis, especially in case of life threatening diseases such as for example diphtheria, wherein the procedure must be started immediately once the disease is suspected, because, if we wait for the lab reports in the future, the individual may be critical. Some recent laboratory tests aid in early diagnosis, but unavailability of sophisticated labs doing such tests is a major deficiency faced by many countries.
The development of science and technology has made a revolution in medical science. Now the idea of disease diagnosis done only on the cornerstone of clinical examination is outdated. It is now under the custody of some sophisticated machines and laboratory techniques, several out of these pose more risk to the health. But, the noteworthy point is, under all lab reports, a disclaimer is written as "correlate with clinical findings", which emphasizes the significance of case taking and clinical examination done by the doctor. In this era, wherein doctor-patient relationship is disrupted, we come across many patients saying that the doctor has abruptly prescribed the medicine or referred for lab test without asking much questions and doing any type of clinical examination.
The recent studies conducted at Mc Master university on the illness diagnosis is remarkable. They unearthed that the name of the illness creates more panic among the patients. For instance, an individual having sour eructation might not feel bad when a doctor says that he has acidity, on another hand, he may get embarrassed if a doctor tells him that he has Gastro-esophageal reflex disease, which is the medical terminology for recurrent burning eructations. The same thing happens in most of the cancer patients; once the condition is diagnosed as cancer, the patients mental and emotional status starts deteriorating. But, a doctor cant hide the illness from the in-patient due to many medical and legal issues. The better alternative is always to secretly tell the diagnosis to the bystanders of the patient.
For an accurate disease diagnosis, the cooperation from the individual and his nearest and dearest is very essential. Each and every problem felt by the in-patient should really be told to the doctor. Some silly matter for the in-patient might be a vital point for a diagnosis and treatment. Similarly, outward indications of long duration might be Sinusite brasilia ignored by some patients. Purposeful hiding of symptoms may be dangerous. Some patients don't tell a doctor about the therapy he had taken previously. Frequent change of doctor (doctor shopping) also can cause difficulties. During consultation, patients habits, life situations, characters, food and bowel habits, relationship with others etc must be told. The reports of previous treatment and investigations should be told, which may save the time needed for a diagnosis. Hence always require a discharge summary while getting discharged from any hospitals. While consulting a health care provider, always take anyone who knows about the patient. The individual also can make a note of his symptoms before going for a consultation, so he won't forget to share with his symptoms completely. In this busy life, there is a trend that instead of patient likely to a doctor, he sends somebody to the physician for a "consultation ".Also there is an increase of individuals preferring over-the-counter purchase of drugs without a prescription.
Whenever a patient dies or becomes serious during the course of treatment, the next thing is to file a suit against the physician or by attacking the doctors and hospitals, consequently of an emotional outbreak and a preconceived indisputable fact that it was due to medical negligence. Nowadays this can be a common story in the majority of the news papers. By promoting the doctor-patient relation ship (which is deteriorating nowadays), and also by going back once again to the "outdated" family doctor concept, we can solve all the health related issues.