THE CORNELL MEDICAL INDEX: An Adjunct to Medical Interview

Abstract

It has been the purpose of this investigation to develop a quick and reliable method of obtaining important facts about a patient's medical history without expenditure of the physician's time. The Cornell Medical Index, the method developed, is a form on which persons undergoing medical examination indicate their symptoms and other significant medical information before being interviewed. As will be shown, the Cornell Medical Index collects a large body of data similar to that recorded in comprehensive hospital medical histories, so that the physician has at hand, even before he interviews the patient, information on which to base tentative diagnostic and prognostic appraisals of the patient's total medical problem. This communication describes the Cornell Medical Index and compares the data it collects with information recorded by examining physicians in the hospital histories of patients in the general medical department of a large teaching hospital. DESCRIPTION OF THE CORNELL MEDICAL