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Old 01-31-2015, 06:31 PM   #21
Flyndaran
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Diagnosis

That said, not every skill makes sense for every game or setting.
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Old 01-31-2015, 08:15 PM   #22
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Diagnosis

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
In the real world, there are many conditions that simply cannot be learned before the lab results gets back no matter one's Diagnosis skill.
Why would the lab work be separate from the Diagnosis roll? I suppose if you outsource all your tests, the skill rolled against should maybe be the lower Diagnosis of your own or the lab technician(s)
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Old 01-31-2015, 10:07 PM   #23
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Diagnosis

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Why would the lab work be separate from the Diagnosis roll? I suppose if you outsource all your tests, the skill rolled against should maybe be the lower Diagnosis of your own or the lab technician(s)
I thought lab work was Electronics Operation: Science or Medical. I think that skills done by NPCs act to modify the PC's rolls rather than requiring rolling themselves.
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Old 01-31-2015, 10:13 PM   #24
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Diagnosis

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Why would the lab work be separate from the Diagnosis roll? I suppose if you outsource all your tests, the skill rolled against should maybe be the lower Diagnosis of your own or the lab technician(s)
Doctors don't perform their own tests and aren't trained to - at least not in modern America, not even when the lab is in-house. What you call "outsourcing" is standard practice.

In conceptual terms, a doctor might make multiple Diagnosis rolls - once when presented with a patient with nonspecific symptoms, to guess what the problem might be and order appropriate tests to confirm, and again (with an appropriate bonus - a fully-equipped lab should probably give +TL/2) when the results come back. If the first roll was a failure, the doctor might have to revise their diagnosis and order additional tests. If the second roll is a failure, the doctor will treat the wrong condition, meaning his Physician rolls automatically fail. After some period of the patient failing to respond to treatment, the doctor should get another Diagnosis roll (with the aforementioned bonus) to figure out where he went wrong.

Lab errors are much rarer than 1-in-200 and probably not worth rolling for - but if you do decide that the lab screwed up, a successful Diagnosis or Physician roll should make the doctor question the result.
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Old 01-31-2015, 10:16 PM   #25
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Diagnosis

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There do seem to be doctors who have an intuition (if that's the word) about things. The one the other doctors consult before deciding on a course of action. That doctor may be no better a surgeon than the rest.
.
Note that Physician and Surgeon are already semi-separate skills. I simply think that Diagnosis should be a Physician speciality/technique.

Last edited by David Johnston2; 01-31-2015 at 10:44 PM.
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Old 02-01-2015, 12:54 AM   #26
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Diagnosis

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I admit this is one of the skills I rarely use and forget exists, and really think should just be rolled into Physician were I to seriously want to rework GURPS . . . there should be 'Heres the Healing skill, take it and life is good'
I'd rather healing be more interesting, not less interesting.
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Old 02-01-2015, 02:02 AM   #27
Peter Knutsen
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Diagnosis

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I'd rather healing be more interesting, not less interesting.
That's my preference too.
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Old 02-01-2015, 07:36 AM   #28
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Diagnosis

It seems to me that we have three distinct medical tasks being performed here: diagnosis of the problem, deciding what treatment is appropriate, and the carrying out of the treatment.

What I have done with these skills in my house rules is remove all but three of the skills. I keep Diagnosis, which does the first part there; Physician, which does the second part (determining what course of treatment the patient should take); and Surgery, which is the skill used for carrying out a large subset of the treatments.

I do have Physician pulling double-duty here, since it is used to carry out non-surgical treatments as well. Perhaps there is room for a fourth skill there.
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Old 02-01-2015, 08:16 AM   #29
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Diagnosis

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I'd rather healing be more interesting, not less interesting.
I realize I'm the opposite. Healing means plunking in another quarter and playing on.
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Old 02-01-2015, 11:01 AM   #30
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Diagnosis

There's an old saying in medicine- "90% of the time you know what's wrong with your patient just by talking to them." And this is very true; common things are common, after all. When you hear hoofbeats think horses not zebras. To a large extent all of the high-tech testing people discussed here are either to verify your impression, or to make a very early diagnosis. Back in The Day people diagnosed all sorts of things without the gee-whiz labs and CTs etc, but they did it late when symptoms were obvious. And, of course, there is extreme stuff like tasting urine to see if it is sweet. Granted, an early diagnosis is very handy in cases such as e.g. cancer, so this does make a big difference.

Of course, the labs, CTs, etc are also very handy for that last 10%, since patients are very inconsiderate, don't read the medical texts, and thus insist upon presenting with atypical symptoms now and then. :) But let me assure you, when an overweight 40-year-old woman with four kids presents complaining of right-upper-quadrant abdominal pain when she eats greasy food I know what the problem is. Likewise, if you try to say that I can't diagnose appendicitis without labs and a CT scan we're going to have a frank exchange of opinions. The testing is to nail the diagnosis and rule out zebras; in other words "due diligence"

Last edited by acrosome; 02-01-2015 at 11:16 AM. Reason: to remove medical jargon that I didn't even realize I was using
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