The structure of diagnosis in medicine: introduction to interrogative characteristics

• Published in: Theoretical medicine and bioethics Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 63 - 81
• Main Author: Rzepiński, Tomasz Mark
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Springer Nature B.V 01.01.2007
• Subjects: Bioethics; Diagnosis, Differential; Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures; Humans; Logic; Medical History Taking - methods
• ISSN: 1386-7415; 1573-1200
• DOI: 10.1007/s11017-006-9024-7

The main purpose of this article is to present the methodological characteristics of a diagnostic process. A proposal is put forward to treat that process as a specific type of a research investigation. The research investigation can be represented in the notional systems of various concepts of the question logic. In this article I attempt to formulate a preliminary notional description of the diagnostic process with the use of terms being questions. Adopting this perspective of deliberations, I maintain that during a diagnostic process a doctor employs a specific type of reasoning, where questions constitute lingual formulations of diagnostic problems. The article describes the structure of a diagnostic question which is used to incorporate diagnostic problems. I provide arguments for a thesis that such questions are meant to correlate information obtained on a patient's condition. Pointing at various aspects of temporality of a diagnostic process, I intend to present its preliminary characteristics in terms of a research investigation. My deliberations are based on exemplifications in the area of medical diagnostics, mainly in cardiology.