Methods for Personalized Diagnostics

Historically medical diagnosis has relied on observation of signs and symptom followed by comparison of these signs and symptoms to profiles of known instances of the disease. While this approach works well in straight-forward diagnosis in commonly found diseases it may not work well for rare diseases or for a common disease that does not present with the normal symptom pattern or when symptoms are the result of the presence of more than one disease. New technologies can assist in the diagnostic process through a number of paradigms, including examination of the life-long patient history, analysis of genetics components, and the inclusion of multidimensional medical decision making that makes full use of automated scanning and analysis. In this article specific approaches that can contribute to personal diagnosis are coupled with a structure for maintaining life-long patient and family history data.