(slang, humorous) A hypothetical instrument that allows diagnostic and management decisions to be made with medical hindsight.

retrospective

plural of retrospectoscope

(medicine, radiology, historical) A specific type of clinicoradiopathologic conference that was used in the early decades of radiography (circa 1900 until World War I), whereby practitioners would make a radiologic diagnosis and then systematically compare it with the subsequent clinical course and any surgery, intraoperative or postoperative radiography or fluoroscopy, and/or autopsy. This method helped advance radiology, given that it is inherently a field of discerning clinicoradiological and clinicoradiopathological correlations. It is no longer codified under this name, because it is no longer necessary in routine practice.

plural of retrospectroscope

(slang, humorous) Synonym of retrospectoscope