1. 1989 makes a plea for as much attention to be paid to economy as to thoroughness and castigates the "mindless work-up." Macartney24 suggests that after accuracy the most important criterion by which a method of diagnosis should be judged is parsimony, a dictionary definition of which is "praiseworthy economy in the use of means to an end." He describes as a blunderbuss approach the traditional method taught to medical students of full history and examination followed by working out what is wrong. (This sequence -history, examination, differential diagnosis -is clearly recommended in one popular text5 and was advocated by at least one distinguished London medical school.25);M.A.R.C.H.
2. Clinical skills;Bouchier, I.A.D.; Morris, J.S.,1982
3. Notes on clinical method;Tunbridge, D.,1982
4. A guide to physical examination and history taking;Bates, B.,1987
5. Introduction to clinical clerking;Seymour, C.A.