A new study finds an increasing number of doctors using information from Internet searches to help diagnose illnesses:
The internet search engine Google has added another
impressive string to its bow - by helping doctors diagnose illnesses, according
to a new study.
Researchers found that almost six-in-10 difficult cases
can be solved by using the world wide web as a diagnostic aid.
Doctors fight disease by carrying about two million
facts in their heads but with medical knowledge expanding rapidly, even this
may not be enough.
Fred has written
on this topic before, but from the patient’s side. He explains how online
resources are helping people take change of their own
health and well being:
The hierarchic medical structure of the past—the doctors as
high priests dispensing their knowledge in oracular fashion—is rapidly being
replaced by the noisier, but vastly more knowledgeable Web.
As the
mainstream infectious diseases of the past fade into history, people find
themselves affected by less common diseases, by rarer side-effects, by ailments
with no clear etiology. But this is almost equally true of their physicians
who, increasingly specialized and dealing with a few thousand patients a year,
are unlikely to encounter your particular malady.
The
Internet, in contrast, has made it possible for victims of "rare"
conditions to find ways to communicate with one another. These sites today are
generally "noisy" and a bit paranoid; many of their sponsors and
members see rare contaminants or industrial pollutants causes for almost
everything. Nonetheless, they are maturing. While some argue we need government
oversight of this profusion of speakers, the solution to bad information is not
censorship but rather better information.
Let’s just hope the FDA doesn’t
hear about this. Before you know it, only board certified physicians will be
allowed to post comments on WedMD.com.
