Diagnostic Process Quotes

A correct diagnosis is three-fourths the remedy.

For a long time, they thought I had lupus, then they thought I had something else. Finally, when I couldn't walk, they did a spinal tap and conclusively diagnosed me with M.S.

It took us about a day and a half to find out what had gone wrong.

There's a classic medical aphorism: 'Listen to the patient; they're telling you the diagnosis.' Actually, a lot of patients are just telling you a lot of rubbish, and you have to stop them and ask the pertinent questions. But, yes, in both drama and medicine, isolated facts can accumulate to create the narrative.

I think what medical training does is it gives you the language, the tools to look up facts. I think medical training gives you a sense of how to approach a problem, how to look at symptoms and go down the list of what it might be.

Well, Doctor, I don't have the diagnosis on that. I'll be sure to do a physical checkup and get back to you.

The physician cannot prescribe by letter, he must feel the pulse.

That's all they said was wrong with me?

To be diagnosed was the hardest thing because I didn't know what they were talking about... And the doctor said, Don't worry, in three months you'll know. So I went about my business and then, one day, it jumped me. I couldn't get up... Your muscles trick you; they did me.

What you need to learn how to do is analyze situations and do differential diagnoses and understand the principle and the concepts rather than learn all the details, and medical school doesn't begin to do that.

Those weeks before diagnosis can be among the most torturous times. There is a reason you're called a patient once the plastic bracelet goes on.

One of the first things we teach medical students is to listen to the patient by taking a careful medical history. Ninety percent of the time, you can arrive at an uncannily accurate diagnosis by paying close attention, using physical examination and sophisticated lab test to confirm your hunch (and to increase the bill to the insurance company).

I wished to God the doctor had handed me a pamphlet that said, 'Hey, sorry about the autism, but here's a step-by-step list on what to do next.' But doctors don't do that. They say 'sorry' and move you along.

I spend almost as much time figuring out what's wrong with my computer as I do actually using it.

In diagnosis think of the easy first.

The fact that it wasn't tells me that we've got a much more fundamental problem of understanding what went wrong, and we've got to figure out what was there. And that's what I call fundamental fault analysis.

He was raised without a proper diagnosis.

Do not mistake a child for his symptom.