gms | German Medical Science

A precise and timely first diagnosis can largely increase the effectiveness of the treatment and reduce the readmission and the healthcare costs. From the first sign of illness to the willingness of help seeking, a patient has also undergone a serial of inner struggle with uncertainty. The first diagnosis is normally conducted by general practitioners (GP). However, at the preliminary stage of an illness, symptoms are normally ambiguous, sporadic or even not perceivable and a GP has only very limited time for the triage and examinations. Therefore, the diagnosis of some diseases have normally a large delay between the first help seeking of the patient to specialist referrals. In particular, for rare or complex diseases, it is often impossible to achieve a complete diagnosis within one visit to the general practitioner. However, delays before the treatment can lead to an increase of morbidity and mortality. In this paper, we will provide an overview about the diagnostic delays of different diseases in both, the viewpoint of a patient and of general practitioners. The obstacles of a timely diagnosis will be analyzed and the corresponding strategies for the delay prevention and patient empowerment towards an efficient first diagnosis will be discussed. More specifically, we will introduce an ICT-based concept to support the communication and data exchange between patient and GP.

Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht.

Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Ethikvotum erforderlich ist.