In Need of Diagnosis Inc. (INOD)

advocates for medical protocols that will result in more timely and accurate diagnoses.  It is also a resource center for persons with illnesses that have eluded diagnosis. One thing that is believed essential to accomplishing more accurate and timley diagnoses is the creation within medicine of a specialty in diagnosis.  A diagnostician would, in effect, be a consummate generalist rather than a specialist.  He would look at the big picture and would be trained to see across the boundaries of the medical specialties.  He would know which specialists to refer patients to and fit together the pieces of the puzzle provided by each specialist.  He would have training in rare diseases, of which more than 7,000 have been identified.  He would be trained in using aids to assist in diagnosis as, for example, medical diagnostic computer software.  He would have knowledge of screening tests and tests for specific disorders that may not be common knowledge to other physicians.  It would not be unlikely that an adult who has had systemic problems for most of their life would have a metabolic problem.  Metabolics has to do with the body's utilization of substances to produce other substances or to breakdown substances.  Since it is a fairly new aspect of medicine, often it is only children who are screened for these disorders.  There is a newborn screening test that can test for over 40 metabolic disorders with one drop of blood.  Metabolic   screening is not usually done for adults.  One reason is because broad based metabolic screening tests have not been developed for adults.  Secondly, there are very few metabolic specialists and most of those are pediatricians who will not accept an adult patient. PhD's in biochemistry, physiology and anatomy are needed in clincial practice.  Food affects body biochemistry. Few physicians have training in epigenetics, the study of how things in the environment can cause genes to act differently even though the genes do not change.