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Original Article

The historical development of the concepts of diagnosis and prognosis and their relationship to probabilistic inference

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Pages 267-280 | Received 01 Apr 1980, Published online: 12 Jul 2009
 

Abstract

The concepts of diagnosis and prognosis arc central to the intellectual basis of modern medical practice. These concepts are rooted in philosophical ideas which were introduced by the ancient Gréks. They were also influenced by the growth of scientific understanding following the Renaissance; and the more recent discipline of probability theory. The relative importance of these historical developments are discussed and suggestions are made about the possible nature of future developments.

Les bases intellectuelles de la pratique médicale moderne sont centrées sur les concepts de diagnostic et de pronostic. Ces concepts trouvent leurs racines dans les idées philosophiques introduites par les anciens. lis ont également été influencés par les connaissances scientifiques qui ont suivies la Renaissance, et, plus récemment, par la théorie des probabilités. Les importances respectives de ces développements historiques sont discutées dans cet article, et des hypotheses sont faites sur la nature des développements futurs.

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