[Diagnosis: meanders and shortcuts]

Diagnosis is knowing about the probability of an illness in a particular patient. Relevant steps in establishing a diagnosis are: gathering of information (history and results of physical examination), defining attributes, to mentally represent the clinical problem and to compare it with memorized illness scripts. From this follows a list of potential illnesses which could explain the clinical signs and symptoms. The next step is to distill the most likely diagnosis by gathering further information about the patient. Most diagnostic errors occur during the information gathering and by interpreting the information.