text: i am a med student,just recently started taking history of patients,i have...? got the pattern how to,what i need to know is,what are the measures i should really be careful about?and what are the points,that are important and normally an inexperienced doctor misses? i know,it probably seem a very minor,stupid question,but being a learner it's important for me... i will really appreciate ur help,...thank u as an epidemiologist, i have to read medical histories on a regular basis. to help you learn to take good medical hx, let me offer you my personal wishlist of things i would like to see more of on h&p.  first up, if you have a really good idea of what the ailment is, you can focus your questions towards that ailment, particularly risk factors for that ailment.   for example, in cases of vibrio infections, ask the patient about travel history, food history, water exposures.  if you are working on a possible std, ask about sexual history -- number of partners, partners incarcerated, injection drug use, etc. if the std patient is a teen (as most are), ask about home life, age of partner (you may be required to report if the patient is young enough), number of partners, school attendance and so forth.  and in general asking about family history, social history, other medical coniditions, medications, illicit drug use , occupational exposures will be helpful.  much of the time, i find that doctors forget to ask about food exposures or travel history. those are key players in many diseases, and it leaves big gaps for researchers like me if i cannot get that information.