Discussion. Volume 41, No. 2 (1960)

In № 1 for 1960 "Kazan Medzhurnal" "Notes on medical thinking and the problem of technology in the field of internal medicine" by prof. A. M. Sigal are of undoubted interest. The author rightly points out that the rapid progress of technology, which we are witnessing, cannot, however, replace the doctor's thinking, and convincingly argues with those who believe that electronic machines, "diagnostic machines" will be able to solve complex issues of differential diagnosis for the doctor and accurately characterize certain features of the disease in a particular individual. As a matter of fact, such "technicalism" can hardly captivate a wide circle of Soviet doctors, who perfectly understand that coding (in terms of symptomatology) of an electronic machine will never be able to reveal in its entirety the complex process of analyzing anamnestic data, objective, laboratory and instrumental research, a combination of diseases , the possibilities of therapy, - a uniquely individual process of making a diagnosis.