1. Past, present and future of the physical examination

This chapter describes some high points in the history of physical examination, its place in clinical reasoning during the diagnostic process, and some future developments that supplement physical examination. A key feature of physical examination is that it has always been a very important diagnostic tool in addition to history-taking – not only in cases where diagnostic tests are not available (or not immediately), but also to enable the right diagnostic tests to be selected to make the diagnosis more or less likely. In some cases, physical examination provides direct diagnostic information that in fact obviates the need for tests. This creates a certain satisfaction and makes us once more aware of how valuable history-taking and physical examination, the basis of medical practice, are; moreover, they increase our pleasure in practising medicine.