Medical findings will signify the collective physical and psychological occurrences of patients surveyed by a medical doctor. The survey is composed of physical examinations by the doctor's senses and simple medical devices, which build clinical findings. If necessary, the results are proofed by further diagnostic tests, which may include procedures using medical apparatus. As the findings relate to the intersubjective occurrences diagnosed by the doctor, they will be differentiated from the sum of subjective data in the patient's medical history.
The documentation of medical findings can differ between:
Out of a combination of these extracted medical findings, a doctor can deduce their diagnosis, whereby they ascribe an affliction to the patient. Medical findings that do not match these diagnoses will be labeled auxiliary medical findings, whose symptoms can illustrate other afflictions.
Although the difference is not clear in everyday parlance, medical findings and symptoms are completely delineated: during the process of confirming a medical finding the empirical character (those that can be found) of the collected medical characteristics is brought out, highlighting symptom of an affliction.
Acquiring medical findings is one of the main duties of a doctor.