In Medicine like police we carry out investigations right away from the: 

1. Patients’ particulars, the history how the disease started which we call history of the presenting complaints;

2. Physical examination:

(a)Vital signs: Body Temperature, Blood pressure, Pulse rate, Weight, Height, Oxgyen circulation, breaths per minute . 

(b) Systemic examination: Respiratory system( breathing system), heart system, abdominal system, musculo-skeletal system, Nervous system( starting from the brain, spinal cord, etc) and others are all examined. 

3. Laboratory and imaging( scans, Xray, CT scan, MRI, etc) are requested to reach the real disease of the patient. 

Please note:

1. The particulars of the patient and the history of how the disease started, point to the diagnosis in about 70 % of cases

2. About 20 % is added by the physical examination 

3. And the remaining 10% is added by laboratory, imaging investigations. 

What do we learn from the above? 

1. Avoid short cuts when you visit a healthy facility for help. Don’t ask for investigations like scan or xray without telling the story of how your disease started. 

2. Avoid and don’t lie to the doctor about your particulars especially name, age, occupation and address because they point to the most likely disease in a certain tribe, age bracket, occupation and in a given location( geographically) 

Don’t lie the doctor the duration of your illness: days, weeks, months or years you have been with the condition because if you tell the doctor that you had a cough for less than one week yet you have had it for a month, a deadly disease like TB maybe missed and you die!! 

When you tell lies, you may invite unnecessary expensive investigations, time consuming and labelling you a wrong disease and hence treatment that is not yours and live to regret and blame the doctors of wrong doing. 

Always help yourself by telling the truth to the medical worker who is willing to help you.