Abstract
IN spite of the homage devoted to the importance of the medical history, there has been remarkably little research on the subject. Neither the method of history taking and recording nor the reliability and usefulness of the data collected has been studied as rigorously as the other tools of clinical medicine, in large part because neither the method nor the data lend themselves well to research.
The traditional method of taking and recording medical histories involves serious problems for both the practicing physician and the clinical research worker. History taking consumes a large amount of the physician's time, and inadequate . . .