Google Good Source For Doctors To Diagnose Hard Cases
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Also Included In: Primary Care / General Practice; Public Health; Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 10 Nov 2006 - 10:00 PDT
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Doctors should consider using Google to search for information that might help them make accurate diagnoses, say researchers from Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. In fact, the researchers found Google to be a good source for 58% of difficult cases.
You can read about this study in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
It is estimated that an average doctor needs to carry two million facts in his/her memory to assist in diagnosing illnesses. However, medical information is expanding at a speed with which doctors will never be able to keep up, say the researchers. Google, the most widely used search engine in the world, has over 3 billion medical articles.
In this study, doctors from the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia, wanted to find out how good Google is at helping doctors diagnose difficult cases. They found 26 hard-to-diagnose cases which had been published in the NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine), such as Cushing's syndrome and CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease).
Using 3-5 search terms, the doctors carried out a Google search for each case, without knowing beforehand what the correct diagnosis was. They chose the three most prominently ranked diagnoses that matched the signs and symptoms, and compared the results with those in the NEJM. They say that 58% of diagnoses carried out using Google searches were correct.
The researchers say Google is easy to use, useful and an excellent aid in finding the correct diagnoses for conditions with unique symptoms and signs. They also added that using Google in this way was only considered reliable for health care professionals with good medical knowledge.
"Googling for a diagnosis - use of Google as a diagnostic aid: internet based study"
Hangwi Tang, Jennifer Hwee Kwoon Ng
BMJ, doi:10.1136/bmj.39003.640567.AE (published 10 November 2006)
Click here to view abstract online
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
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Visitor Opinions In Chronological Order (1)
Google Search Revealed Cause Of Mystery Prostate Condition
posted by Anon on 12 Nov 2006 at 3:36 pmWhen I was 20, I was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate that did not respond to medication. An MRI scan revealed a growth in my prostate that was blocking my urethra, which at the age of 20 seemed implausible. Before the biopsy, I agonized over the possibility of having prostate cancer at such an early age and turned to Google in the hope of finding an alterternate, less benign explanation.
After countless searchs, I arrived at a picture of a rare type of prostate cyst known as a Mullerian Duct cyst. I went to my biopsy appointment and told my dosctor (UPenn grad with 20+ years of experience) about the condition, which he had never seen before. But when the biopsy was performed using an ultrasound-based biopsy needle, the fuzzy picture on the screen clearly revealed that I did indeed have a mullerian duct cyst.
The doctor punctured the cyst and that was it. Not only did Google allow me to self-diagnose my rare condition(repeated searches on web MD did not bring up any hits for the cyst) , it allowed me to hold on to some element of hope during the time between my intital visit and biopsy appointment that my condition was not due to something far less benign than prostate cancer. I beleive every doctor should use Google as a tool (or have staff dedicated to searching) to help them diagnose conditions that are outliers. To supplement the doctors seraches patients should also take to the web to help find the cause of their mystery illness (no UPenn medical training required!)
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