Definition of prognosis - What it is, Meaning and Concept

Forecast is a term that comes from the Latin prognosticum , although its most remote origin is in the Greek language.The concept refers to the action and effect of forecasting (knowing the future through certain clues).

For example: "The weather forecast anticipates rains for the night" , "My forecast is that Brazil will win by three to zero" , "The Quentin Tarantino movie met the forecasts and won the statuette" .

The notion of forecasting is common in the meteorology .These are forecasts that, according to the study of atmospheric conditions, indicate that it will occur with the weather in the next few days., the forecast can predict sunny or rainy days, anticipate the fall of hail, warn of strong winds, etc.Although it uses various devices and satellites and is based on scientific information, the weather forecast is not infallible, since the conditions they can change without previous indications.

A forecast can also be a forecast or a palpito about an event.Before a soccer match, the experts They can predict what the outcome will be, according to the background of each team and the personal situation of each player, trying to anticipate their influence in the match.

The medical prognosis is the judgment of a health professional about the changes that may occur in the course of a illness .The prognosis anticipates its possible duration of agreement to the symptoms that are evident in the patient.It is known as reserved prognosis to the one who is uncertain or who presupposes a negative outcome: “The victim meets with a reserved prognosis after the emergency operation ”.

The qualification of a disease is known as clinical judgment, and is obtained through evaluating all the signs and symptoms that a patient presents, in addition to the information that comes from the complementary tests, such as physical examination and clinical analysis, with the objective of estimating a diagnosis, the patient's condition and the most effective treatment for each specific case.The medical prognosis is one of the types of clinical judgment, and tries to anticipate the events that could take place if the disease progresses warned.

It is known as prognostic factors to the series of variables that are obtained from the performance of clinical studies, which are carried out based on a particular disease with the aim of analyzing the symptoms of a patient, as well as the diagnostic tests that have been done.These factors give rise to the estimate of the most appropriate treatment.

The medical prognosis can be expressed in two ways:

qualitative

*, that is, through a rating such as good , intermediate or bad , or mild , moderate or severe .The reserved forecast also enters this group, which, given its uncertain and hidden nature, usually suggests that the patient's health status is very serious;

* quantitative, for which survival or mortality rates and percentage values ​​are usually used.

Giving a patient a hopeless prognosis is not an easy task, although it is the right of anyone to know their health status and their chances of being cured or survive, depending on the case, although cinema and television usually take advantage of this type.of situations to generate humorous moments, it is a crucial point in the relationship between a doctor and his patients, since this depends on the way in which the latter face their treatments.

Telling a person that they are less than 5% likely to survive, or that they will not stay alive for more than a few months is really difficult, but history has repeatedly shown that willpower can surprise even health experts, so it is very important to communicate this type of information trying not to take the patient directly to its destruction.