Importance of case history in disease diagnosis as perceived by medicos

Abstract

History taking is an important tool available to the medical student to make a reasonable working diagnosis. The process of clinical reasoning helps give a comprehensive view of the patient’s needs and aids in patient centered care. Though 43.9% of the medicos strongly agreed that diagnosis is an important function of a doctor, only 18.3 % of the men and 10.6 % of the women were convinced that a good diagnosis was possible with case taking alone. Overall, only 7.3 % felt confident in taking a good history. The current study shows that history taking and physical examination is taking a lesser role in diagnosis. Communication with the patient is also seen as not necessary. This descriptive study involves 164 medicos (110 final years and 54 interns) who were administered a predetermined questionnaire. Findings were subjected to tests of significance like Chi square at 5% Level of significance.To identify the importance given to history taking in disease diagnosis among medicos. Undergraduate medical education must ensure training in communication, proper history taking and good examination skills. Small-group skills workshops using role-plays followed by effective feedback are ways to certifiable training in medical colleges.