The diagnostic medical interview spans from the chief concern to the formation of a differential diagnosis. The patient's unique expression of their symptoms is the central component of this conversation. The interview should begin by eliciting the patient's chief concern with an open-ended question and then move through 3 nonlinear phases: open-ended elicitation, guided elicitation, and hypothesis-driven elicitation. Performing a comprehensive medical interview by obtaining background health information and the review of systems can help to expand or shrink the differential diagnosis. Clinicians should obtain information about specific symptoms and background information with a significant likelihood to narrow the differential diagnosis.
Keywords: Clinical reasoning; Diagnosis; Health care communication; History-taking; Medical interview.
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