The symptom ontology was designed around the guiding concept of a symptom being: "A perceived change in function, sensation or appearance reported by a patient indicative of a disease". There is a close relationship between Signs and Symptoms, where Signs are the objective observation of an illness. The Symptom Ontology will work to broaden its scope to capture and document in a more robust manor these two sets of terms. At times, the same term may be both a Sign and a Symptom.
diagnosis disease patient care