Clinic

Health care point, which provides primary health care to residents of the village of Veliki Vrag, Nizhni Nóvgorod, in Russia.

Entrance to a surgical clinic in Greenwich, London.

Chemnitz Polyclinic, Germany.

Polyclinic in Písek, Czech Republic.

Polyclinic in Vilnius, in Karoliniškės, Lithuania.

Pediatric polyclinics in Moscow (Novokosino, municipal district).

Military polyclinic in Legionowo, Poland.

The clinic (from Greek Greek κλινική 'to lie down, bow down' formed with the suffix -ikos from κλίνη, 'bed,lecho') follows the steps of semiology, science and art of medicine, in the investigative process oriented to the diagnosis of a pathological situation (disease, syndrome, disorder, etc.), based on the integration and interpretation of the symptoms and other data provided by the anamnesis during the clinical interview with the patient, the signs of the physical examination and the help of complementary laboratory examinations and imaging tests. With the diagnosis of a disease, a treatment is prescribed.

Traditionally, the clinic is the diagnosis made at the bedside of the patient through the report of their symptoms and the signs obtained in the physical examination.

The clinician is the doctor who diagnoses and treats his patients.

The hospital or health center where the doctor diagnoses and treats people with health problems is also called a clinic, although this applies to private centers while the name hospital proper.

The clinical history is where all clinical data is collected.

History

The concept of clinic is very old, undergoing an evolutionary process that has continued throughout history, receiving an important boost in its initial development with Greek doctors such as Hippocrates in the 5th century BC and later in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, mainly in asylums or hostels, later hospitals for the dispossessed, the sick and the elderly abandoned in Holland, France and Italy.

The historical reference on movements for the creation of chairs and clinical institutes dates from the 17th and 18th centuries throughout Europe, where the disease presents itself to the observer according to symptoms and signs. The ones and the others are distinguished by their semantic value, as well as by their morphology. At this stage, the relationship between the clinician and the patient was direct, therefore the abilities of the explorer, his intelligence, his motor and sensitive skills and a few instruments, with which the final results were obtained for the elaboration of the diagnosis at the same time as the patient's bed.

This situation remained almost unchanged until after World War II, a change related to the rapid technological development of the second half of the last century. Technological development favored greater sensitivity and specificity in diagnosis, giving rise to a large number of new diseases, only identifiable thanks to sophisticated laboratory equipment and tests.

There are several types of clinics that have been founded during the last decades, where they are diverse and serve general medicine or specialties. and are distinguished from the evolution of hospitals

Clinical method

The clinical method is the set of steps followed to diagnose a disease. It is part of the construction of medical knowledge that runs through clinical semiology. It could also be said that it is the in-depth study of a particular case; however, a group, family, etc. may be served. In turn, it is valid to clarify that there are other sciences that use this method and it is not exclusive to medicine.

Phases of the process

• It is part of the subjective discomfort communicated to the doctor by the patient, that is, by the symptoms. Knowledge of symptoms allows the doctor to start a differential diagnosis.
• Then the doctor will explore the patient to find objective alterations or signs that he suffers. At this time, the diagnosis will be considered presumption.
• To arrive at the definitive clinical diagnosis, at times, additional scans are required, such as laboratory tests, or imaging (radiographs, ultrasounds, magnetic resonances) or electrodiagnosis (electrocardiograms) etc.
• The clinical diagnosis can be partial or incomplete; which implies that the true definitive diagnosis, be the one performed in a test post-mortem, this diagnosis is called anatomopathological diagnosis (or etiological).

Once the disease or nosological entity has been diagnosed, its prognosis, treatment and prophylaxis will be carried out.