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Diagnosis, the most important aspect of clinical medicine, remains as much an art as a science. It depends more on skilled history taking than on examination or studying the results of tests. Evidence-based medicine only follows when a correct diagnosis has been made. The diagnosis depends on knowing what happens rather than the more exciting academic teaching about why things happen. The factual knowledge and logic needed to make a diagnosis are discussed.
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P.B.S. Fowler (1997) studied this question.
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