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posted by n1 on Tuesday July 14 2015, @03:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the and-your-dr.-is-always-right-first-time dept.

For your typical hypochondriac, online symptom checkers are a rabbit hole of medical information and the anxiety that comes with it. But according to a new study led [PDF] by researchers at the Harvard Medical School, most of these sites are so inconsistent and inaccurate that patients shouldn't rely upon them for correct diagnoses.

In the study, which was published in the British Medical Journal, the researchers looked at 23 web sites from around the world that claim to offer information for diagnosis and triage (assessing how urgently a condition needs to be treated). They used 45 patient vignettes, about half of which were common conditions, to assess the sites' accuracy.

They found that the correct diagnosis came up first only 34 percent of the time. Half the sites had the right answer in their top three results, and almost 60 percent had it in the top 20. Triage advice fared a bit better, with accurate suggestions coming up first 57 percent of the time. The sites in which the right answer came up as the first result most often were: DocResponse (50 percent), Family Doctor (47 percent), and Isabel (44 percent).

What has been the experience of SN Members? Do they rely on online medical diagnosis?

[Also Covered By]: http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2015/07/self-diagnosing-health-websites-study


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  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday July 14 2015, @07:37AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday July 14 2015, @07:37AM (#208783) Journal

    Self-diagnosis! Self-medication? Sounds like you have a well-know condition!

    Seen on a tombstone: "I told you I was sick!"

    Besides, if you keep searching for all the stuff that might be wrong with you, only Obamacare will save you from being denied medical insurance for pre-existing conditions.

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