A red flag is considered as a warning or signal of there perhaps being some danger. In health care the term is used to indicate that a clinical sign or symptom is a sign of a potentially serious condition. A red flag is not a diagnosis, but rather they raise an index of suspicion of something more serious that needs to be investigated.
Examples:
For a child presenting with “growing pains“, a red flag would be if the child is systemically unwell, limping, has symptoms in the morning or the pain is widespread.
Homan’s sign is a potential indicator or a red flag for a deep venous thrombosis.
A vertical black line in a toenail is red flag for a malignant melanoma.
Also:
At the beach, a literal red flag is used to signify unsafe water conditions.
In the military, red flags are used to indicated a live fire exercise is in progress.
In politics, a red flag has been used as the banner of left-wing political party’s.
Email spam filters make use of red flags in messages to decide if a message is potentially spam.
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