This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Jack Poland, MD
Fort Collins, Colo

JAMA. 1985;253(6):776.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

I would truly like to believe that Norman Cousins' plea for legislators to acknowledge the physician's need to take a complete and relevant history from a patient would ensure such a doctor-patient exchange.¹

My experience suggests that practicing physicians quickly abandon the careful and complete historical investigation learned as students, in favor of a short-form version composed of the chief complaint, a quick review of systems, and a family history. Unless the patient suspects their importance and volunteers the information, cultural factors, exposure to sources of infectious disease, and even a precise time of onset of symptoms are often not established until a laboratory finding prompts a reappraisal of these highly significant background data.

This failure to obtain the necessary historical information can hardly be blamed on governmental or legislative refusal to proffer remuneration for the physician's time. It is, however, possible that the physician's own . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?