Purposes and models of diagnostic systems.

Emerging efforts at developing new international classification and diagnostic systems require a careful and fresh review and conceptualization of the meanings, purposes and models of diagnostic systems. Such meanings include both an informative statement as well as a process or activity. The purposes of diagnostic systems can be clustered under understanding of a case and planning effective clinical care and public health interventions. The models designed to give form to a diagnostic system must pay attention to the informational domains to be covered (from illness to positive health), the descriptive or measurement tools to be utilized (categories, dimensions, narratives), the evaluators to be engaged (clinicians, patient, family) and the structural schemas (single- or multilevel) required to accommodate meanings and purposes of interest. Copyright 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.