The Reliability of Medical History and Physical Examination in Patients with Acute Abdominal Pain

The reliability of medical record information is of fundamental importance to the certainty with which a diagnosis can be made. 40 patients were chosen at random and each was examined by four clinicians. The information and a tentative diagnosis were written on a special record form. The results were judged by means of the coefficient kappa. The clinicians disagreed more on symptoms than on diagnoses. The diagnoses made by an automatic diagnosis system showed lower precision and lower accuracy than the clinicians’ diagnoses. The results of the study might explain why computer assistance in diagnostics is of limited value.