What is its advantage over books like Control of Communicable Diseases Manual?
• Think of “zoom-intersection” instead of making a shopping list of symptoms. An “AND” query is the same as two intersecting circles in a Venn diagram. You are trying to zoom-in to a differential diagnosis that fits the unique criteria for this case. Common symptoms shared by most infectious diseases, e.g., fever and fatigue, are not very helpful in limiting the differential diagnosis. Are there any unique criteria in this case like eosinophilia, pleural effusions, or petechiae? Are there any epidemiological factors that you can add from the history of this patient? If the patient lives in the United States and has not traveled, limit your query to diseases endemic to North America (assuming that you are not considering a bioterrorism event). • If your query gives you a long differential diagnosis, you may need to scroll to the end of the list. For example, the criteria of fever, fatigue, and pharyngitis results in 25 diseases. The diseases are listed in alphabetical order. • You may l
