I am interested in the typology of clinical data - signs and symptoms are the typical classifications. Symptoms are subjectively perceived (by patients) but signs are not; they are instead elicited and appraised by clinicians, and measured by other medical investigators (objective evidence of disease).
Genetic data are obviously not symptoms, but are they signs? Or should they constitute a classification of their own now that genetic testing is increasingly being utilized for the detection of disease/disease disposition?
Actually, genetic data should have classification on their own. Signs are manifestation and genetic data could only be the cause of the disease.
Very interesting suggestion. Of course, data (per se) are only manifestations of phenomena, and in the case of genetic data, the latter represent phenomena as well, such as mutations or changes in DNA sequences underlying pathology. Do you have another criterion for a different classification? Thank you.
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