This One’s For Dani

November 14th, 2006 | by Craig |

I caught this the other day, and thought immediately of Dani, who isn’t a GP, but is a doc.

Seems that the googlebeast is 58% accurate in diagnosing symptoms.

I confess to using Google to put in my symptoms a couple of few times, and my gut feeling is that 58% is a pretty good number. One time, the googlebeast had me half-convinced that I had plantar fasciitis, but I had nagging doubts. It turned out to be tendonitis. But it was dead-on when I had the gout. (Yeah, I had the gout. Wanna make something of it.)

  1. 4 Responses to “This One’s For Dani”

  2. By Shane Mason on Nov 14, 2006 | Reply

    Gout? What’s next? Rickets?

  3. By Kim on Nov 14, 2006 | Reply

    When/if I get a diagnosis, I’ll let you know if Google was right.

  4. By Dani on Nov 15, 2006 | Reply

    Ha! A diagnostic test with only 58% sensitivity would get laughed right out of the lab! Although, Google is a heckuva lot better than getting advice from the guys at the barbershop. Plus, doctors do this all the time, then Google up guidelines or switch over to Medline to find the best treatments.

    And it does leave the other, more challenging 42% to diagnose, so doctors can spend their time actually using their training. Unfortunately, as they say in med school, “You never want to be an interesting case.”

    The essential problem with Googling up illnesses is that you don’t know if you are in the 58% or the 42%. Again, poor sensitivity. My own experience is that the internet increases visits to the doctor, because any time there is a list of diagnoses, there’s a list of possible rule-outs, some of which are fairly frightening. Google might get people to the most likely diagnosis, but then there’s possibility #2,3 and 4…. If something nasty-looking is in second or third place, it is only logical for people to see a doc, because folks don’t know if their Google diagnosis is correct. And, even if it is, many of those people will need treatment.

    Unless you can get colchicine on the street, Craig, which I kind of doubt. Not much money in that.

  5. By Dani on Nov 15, 2006 | Reply

    P.S.
    Thanks for thinking of me, Craig! Kind of shocking to open the blog and see my name in lights.

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