All information is treated confidentially, but patients often hesitate to reveal important facts for a variety of reasons. To help any physician make an accurate diagnosis of your problems, you need to make them aware of all the life changes that preceded your problem. If all possible diagnoses are considered, and each one is thoroughly tested and evaluated, then medical decisions can be very accurate. However, since this involves subjective judgment to a large extent, it can go wrong unless the physician makes use of basic decision-making principles. The first is to list alternative hypotheses .
Physicians usually start with the most common diagnoses that fit the information in each case.
However, they also try to keep in mind other, less common diagnoses that could seriously endanger the patient if they were overlooked. Second, physicians selectively collect information . At this point, physicians usually order laboratory tests that will either confirm or rule out the diagnoses being considered. Physicians need to balance the benefits of the information to be gained from the tests against their financial cost, potential health risks, and possible side-effects. Lastly, physicians assemble all the data and determine possible courses of action .