Iconodiagnosis: Guidelines and recommendations

Iconodiagnosis consists of a retrospective medical diagnosis carried out on a work of art depicting a human person. For a hundred years, physicians have embarked on this practice, making it possible to supplement epidemiological data on the existence of diseases in ancient periods or past populations, but also to train physicians in their clinical and semiological sense. Faced with the exponential increase in publications in this field, it was necessary to propose clear rules and a precise and rigorous methodology allowing a serious practice of iconodiagnosis.