The Meaning of “Diagnosis”
Dr.Kut | Mar 19, 2010 | Comments 0
The literal meaning of the word diagnosis is “by knowledge”. This is a Greek word that defines the work of the medical practitioner needs to do when he is encountered with a health problem. It is therefore the job of the physician to understand the symptoms of your problem, compare them with the most common symptoms that are related to a specific disease and get the proper tests done to confirm the diagnosis. There are many ways of conducting these tests and they can include a blood test or a saliva sample, a biopsy or an electrocardiogram, a stool of urine sample.
Once the results come back and your diagnosis has been confirmed, then it is time to start the treatment and the doctor will be able to guide you according to the intensity and stages of your problem.
In the 1900 a physician called William Osler started the practice of diagnosis and treatment to allow people to be able to handle the situation of disease easier. Since then, this is considered as the Oslerian idea, where you undergo certain kinds of tests to rule out what you don’t have and to find out what you may have and how to treat it.
Science has advanced a lot, however, the concept of diagnosis still remains the same and in fact this is becoming more and more important as the new challenges that are hitting the medical professionals to find the difference between the old kinds of diseases and their treatments and the new and more sophisticated versions of the same diseases are making it very difficult to understand.
For example, diseases like diabetes or high blood pressure used to have a definite pattern, however now days this pattern is changing due to the lifestyle and stress that people need to handle on an everyday basis. Obesity is also causing havoc in people’s lives and the age at which people used to get these diseases has also changed with times.
Therefore, diagnosis of diseases is also seen a change and it is only through this process that the medical practice can handle the situation in a proper manner. Doctors need to learn and study constantly to be able to handle the pressure of their work.
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