Medical exams A medical examination is a diagnostic procedure performed for health reasons. For example : to diagnose illnesses to measure the progression, regression or cure of disease to confirm that someone has no disease Some consist of a simple physical examination, also called a clinical examination: it requires only simple instruments in the hands of a doctor, and can be performed in his office. Others require more sophisticated equipment and / or the use of a sterile environment. Some exams require tests on tissue samples or body fluids that will be sent to a medical laboratory for analysis. Some simple chemical tests (such as measuring the pH of urine) can be measured directly in the doctor's office. Sometimes the possibility of a false negative or false positive must be confirmed by culturing from samples. Some exams can also be performed on a dead person during an autopsy.