Will Doctors be put out of Business by Google??

Here's a tidbit I found this morning off my AIS newsletter... Google's role in helping people diagnose their symptoms is compelling.




Take these, and Google your symptoms in the morning. An Australian study has found that Google correctly diagnosed uncommon medical conditions 58% of the time, after entering some symptoms from 26 cases into the search engine, reports London's Daily Express. According to the newspaper, researchers from the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Australia "Googled" three to five symptoms from each of the 26 cases selected from the New England Journal of Medicine. Then the researchers documented three diagnoses and selected the one that seemed most probable for the relevant symptoms, adds Daily Express. What the researchers found was that Google's diagnoses were correct in 15 of the 26 cases. The researchers concluded that, as Internet access becomes more readily available in outpatient clinics and hospital wards, the Web is rapidly becoming an important clinical tool for doctors. The use of Web-based searching may even help doctors diagnose difficult cases, according to Daily Express.



The Personal Pediatrics Affiliate House Call portal will consider how Google may play a role in pediatric diagnosis. Natalie Hodge MD Personal Pediatrics affiliate St. Louis