It must be clear that one is able to define these terms. But others do the same and do it differently.
Examples: Symptom: 1- an observable as percieved and communicated by a patient 2- an observable fact about the patient (system) 3- an observable fact about the patient system deemed relevant by a healthcare provider 4- the prototypical phenomenon that can be observed and belongs to a set of possible phenomena caused by a particular disease These are paraphrased definitions hat I remember. So what to do? All 4 are defined but not the same. This is why CEN/ISO Concepts for Continuity of Care defines many of the terms we need in healthcare. http://www.datadictionary.nhs.uk/contsys/ They use a co-ordinated, modeled, set of terms we can use as reference point when we all use our own definitions locally. Gerard Freriks +31 620347088 gfrer at luna.nl On 18 Aug 2012, at 14:13, Karsten Hilbert wrote: >> lets ditch the term 'Diagnosis' completely. >> Or use it only when we are -as you write- scientifically certain. >> And use other terms. We (EN13606 Association) prefer the 'Reasons for ...' >> type of terms, because that is what they do in real life. >> They are the excuses to do something (or nothing); they are the cost >> drivers in healthcare; they must be documented. >> >> Words like 'symptom', 'sign', 'syndrome', 'diagnosis', are fuzzy terms >> that can mean too many things. > > They do have intuitive clinical meanings though: > > symptom/sign: > > a *single* "thing" related to a patient's health deemed > clinically relevant by the provider > > cluster of symptoms/signs: > > a group of probably related symptoms/signs happening at the > same time, suggestive to the provider to be of common origin > > syndromic diagnosis: > > cluster(s) of signs/symptoms which incur sufficient confidence > in the provider to "call this" a certain affliction - IOW a > clinical diagnosis, differential diagnosis, considered diagnosis > > Those definitions work quite well in GP land. > > Karsten > > _______________________________________________ > openEHR-clinical mailing list > openEHR-clinical at lists.openehr.org > http://lists.openehr.org/mailman/listinfo/openehr-clinical_lists.openehr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.openehr.org/pipermail/openehr-clinical_lists.openehr.org/attachments/20120819/badc7f07/attachment.html>
