When a medical doctor refers to the prognosis of a patient's condition, what are they referring to?
a. The cause of the condition
b. The pattern of the condition development
c. The outcome of the condition
d. The state of the current condition
Explanation: The Greek translation for "prognosis" literally means fore-knowing and as a medical term to describe the likely outcome of an illness. A prognosis can be highly accurate when applied to a large statistical population but becomes less reliable on a per person basis. There are many scales and formats used to create various prognostic calculations. A complete prognosis would include the expected time, function and disease course of the patient.