**3. Essence of technology in the diagnostic process**

The ability to accurately determine the nature (cause and consequence) of a health problem in order to plan, implement, and evaluate appropriate treatment and care provision has been regarded as one of the most essential basic professional competences in the field of health professionals in the medical, paramedical, allied healthcare, and nursing domains.

However, recent research has shown that diagnostic skills and applications can regularly be improved in practice, which means that optimally appropriate care is not always available. Preconditions for appropriate care are, in particular, diagnostic (reasoning) skills based on declarative, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge that is made operational and is visibly expressed in a care process.

The application of technology within the diagnostic process is steadily increasing. However, this development is still often viewed separately from the empirical, symptomatic diagnostics, such as abductive diagnostics, in which a diagnosis is made mainly on the basis of intuitive, inductive, deductive, and cognitive methods.

The wish is to continue the abovementioned critical reasoning but, if possible, to expand it synergistically in the areas of knowledge as follows:


but where goals are formulated that are holistic in nature, patient-oriented, and that demonstrably support patient empowerment, self-management, improved health literacy throughout the entire healthcare chain, and further life cycle.
