Processing is the mechanism by which a patient’s words describing his/her symptoms are converted into uniformly descriptive medical terminology.

The value of processing is three fold:

1. It facilitates recall of information learned in the medical format. We learn the differential of dyspnea, not about shortness of breath.  A patient’s use of shortness of breath may mean many different things, such as nasal congestion, true dyspnea, or fatigue.

2. Simple descriptive processing involves using descriptors that are binary and oppositional and more abstract than the patient’s language.  (for instance, a symptom present for two days is abstracted to mean an acute symptom.)  It thus helps us narrow the differential diagnosis playing field and consider a smaller number of diagnoses.  It is part of the process by which forward thinking occurs.  By necessity, processing forces us to identify which information is important and which is not. (acute vs. chronic diarrhea for example.)

3. Summative Processing occurs when processed descriptive terms are combined to identify a syndrome.   This allows us to decrease the number of signs and symptoms on which we focus.  Processing the symptom complex of blood per rectum, fever, abdominal pain and tenesmus to dysentery allows us to focus our attention on the syndrome of dysentery and prevents us from focusing inappropriately on one of the components of the syndrome.  Furthermore, this specific language allows for efficient communication with our colleagues.