GIDEON® assumes the following:


1. A single, Infectious Disease is responsible for the signs and symptoms entered. The clinician is encouraged to keep in mind that non-infectious diseases may also produce signs and symptoms such as fever, leukocytosis, etc.


2. All clinical findings are causally related to the Infectious Disease in question. Clinical findings that predate the infection or are related to an underlying disease should not be entered in the clinical findings list. Seemingly long and irrelevant Differential Diagnosis lists may result from failure to enter all positive AND NEGATIVE clinical findings.


The GIDEON® disease database does not include:


1. Self-defined and obvious infectious diseases that should not require computer diagnosis: paronychia, otitis externa, phlebitis, suppurating wounds, olecranon bursitis, etc.


2. Conditions that are not diagnosed and treated by Infectious Disease specialists, such as human papillomavirus infections, Creutzfelt-Jakob disease, Helicobacter gastritis, etc.