Google - the Latest High-Tech Tool for Medical Diagnosis

Background
Actually, people have been using Google for medical research for a while now. But a recent experience of two Australian doctors got them to take "Googling" more seriously.

These two doctors had a young patient with a fairly uncommon problem. While they were explaining it to patient's father, they mentioned that the cause was not certain. Then the father said, "But of course it's..." and not only gave the name of condition but also described it. It turned out he'd already researched his son's symptoms on the internet - by Googling them.

Research
This experience caused the doctors to decide on an informal study to determine how accurate a "Google diagnosis" could be. They selected the case records published in the New England Journal of Medicine for the year 2005, did a Google search on the symptoms, then compared the results with the actual diagnoses (which they had deliberately not checked before they did the search). The search results gave them correct answers in 15 of the 26 cases - in other words, 58%.

Considerations
The researchers concluded that Google may be helpful in diagnosing conditions that are rare or have unique symptoms. Diseases that are complex, with symptoms that are common to many conditions, would be harder to pin down.

This study, which was published by the British Medical Journal online, was met with skepticism by some people, who said that the internet contains a lot of information that's incomplete or just plain wrong. They feel that people who use search engines to diagnose their problems could be seriously - and possibly dangerously - misled.

The researchers, who are both practicing physicians, did say that non-physicians - in other words, patients - will have more trouble with this method because they won't have the knowledge to plug in the correct search terms, let alone recognize good information from bad. Doctors, on the other hand, will be able to do both of these, and also use other means - for example, the tests mentioned earlier - to help them make an accurate diagnosis.

There's certainly a lot of medical information available online now. And much of it is on reputable sites - for example, the online versions of what are called "peer-review" publications, like the British Medical Journal. The researchers mentioned that Google has a new service, called Google Scholar, which contains only peer-reviewed articles. This service, which is currently in beta testing, should be very helpful to medical professionals looking for more information.

And ultimately, it will be the doctor's job to "put the pieces together," diagnose the problem, and come up with a treatment plan. The internet may provide more information than the doctor has at their disposal, but it's the human factor that will ensure that the patient gets the most accurate assessment and the most appropriate treatment possible for their individual condition.