Found in translation: the impact of familiar symptom descriptions on diagnosis in novices

CONTEXT: The language that patients use to communicate with doctors is quite different from the language of diagnosis. Patients may describe tiredness and swelling; doctors, fatigue and oedema. This paper addresses the process by which novices, who have learned standard medical terms for symptoms, use lay descriptions of symptoms to reach a diagnosis. Data in this paper indicate that the familiarity of the language used to describe symptoms …