The Diagnostic Importance of the History and Physical Examination as Determined by the Use of a Medical Decision Support System

摘要

Automated analysis of NEJM CPC cases was used to assess the relative importance of history and physical examination data in medical diagnosis. The Quick Medical Reference diagnostic program was used to analyze 86 NEJM CPC cases in three forms: intact cases; cases containing only history, physical, and admission type laboratory test results; and cases containing no laboratory test results. In 64% of the cases there was no significant difference in the performance of the program using the intact version of the case versus using the other two versions.