Adjuvant technologies in Medical History Taking: A historical overview

Introduction: History taking (HT) is the basis for medical practice. Although its format lacks a standard, many HT tools (HTT) were developed, applied, and automated throughout history. Our aim is to build a history line about HTT development and its pros and cons. Method: We accessed Medline and LILACS database through the BVS search engine, using HTT equivalents in English, Portuguese, French, Spanish, and German. Original papers and reviews about HTT aiming general practice were selected, and their content comprehensively analyzed and discussed, following PRISMA guidelines. Results: From 24904 initial entries about HT since 1900, 105 were selected for analysis. First HTT was identified before the 1st World War, mainly as mental screening tools. Later, other general practices HTT were developed, integrating statistical and branching reasoning. Two advantages were consistently reported about clinician time saving and improvement on information gathering. However, their use did not become widespread, restricted to research scenarios and specific guidelines for clinical intervention. Conclusions: HTT benefits may result from the systematization of HT, and it is not clear if it results in economic and quality of care improvement. However, systematization of HT and the use of computational processing power may help medical practice and should not be overlooked. Better comprehension of the diagnostic HT clinical act will help comprehend how HTT may be useful for clinical practice, reasoning and doctor patient relationship.