Symptom Checkers
If you trust Google more than your doctor than maybe it's time to switch doctors - Jadelr and Cristina Cordova
image by: Ambassade des États-Unis, Port-au-Prince (Haïti)
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Should You Diagnose Yourself Online? Here’s What Doctors Think
Online symptom checkers are the digital version of the DIY doctor. Plug in what’s ailing you — headache, stomach pains, weird skin rash — and you get a list of what’s (likely) causing the problem.
The key word is ‘likely.’ Depending on which version you use, that list could be spot on, or it could lead you astray — luring you into a false sense of reassurance that nothing is wrong, or sending you into a spiral of anxiety about a serious, and possibly even fatal, condition. None of that is new for web-based data searches. But because health information could literally mean the difference between life and death, does checking symptoms online even make sense for the patient?
Not…
Resources
Ubie
When You Feel Unwell, Ask Ubie. Answer a 3-min questionnaire about your symptoms for free to find out possible causes, severity, and care options by AI, developed by doctors.
Doctors Really, Really Want You to Stop Googling Your Symptoms
There’s a term for this: cyberchondria, first coined in a 2001 BBC article and later adopted by researchers studying how the internet fuels health anxieties. And there’s plenty of it going around — a 2013 Pew survey found that just over a third of U.S. adults have turned to the internet to help them figure out a health issue, while Google noted in a blog post earlier this summer than around one percent of its searches are on medical topics.
Looking Up Symptoms Online? These Companies Are Tracking You
The vast majority of the internet's health sites are sending troves of data about your medical searches to corporations.
Search Engines vs. Symptom Checkers: A Comparison of their Effectiveness for Online Health Advice
Increasingly, people go online to seek health advice. They commonly use the symptoms they are experiencing to identify the health conditions they may have (self-diagnosis task) as well as to determine an appropriate action to take (triaging task); e.g., should they seek emergent medical attention or attempt to treat themselves at home?
The doctor is ... YOU! Online medical symptom checkers examined
Can interactive tools from the likes of WebMD and MayoClinic.com really find what ails you?
Why Googling Symptoms is a Bad Idea
It’s good to know what to do for abdominal cramps, headaches, or nasal congestion. Searching on Google for medical information can guide users to the right decision if they know their condition. However, self-diagnosis through the search engines can make users think that a simple headache is a symptom of a brain tumor, nasal congestion is a sinus infection, and an abdominal cramp is appendicitis or pancreatitis, increasing anxiety.
Your Doctor Vs. Dr. Google: And The Winner Is...
But, according to results of a new study, doctors are more effective than symptom checkers to obtain an accurate diagnosis —by over two to one—with the suggestion that such computer-based algorithms in symptom checkers could be an effective aid for healthcare professionals to broaden their differential diagnosis.
A Better Online Diagnosis Before the Doctor Visit
Now more health-care providers are turning the tables, steering patients to new and improved computerized symptom-checkers that make it easier for them to get reliable information about possible diagnoses, research their condition and even connect directly to a doctor. Doctors are adding these tools to their websites and incorporating them into electronic medical records, encouraging patients to use them before office visits to save time and make consultations more productive. Another benefit: Results turned up by a symptom-checker may actually help doctors think of something they hadn't considered.
Online Symptom Checkers Are Often Wrong (Phew)
It's probably not cancer: Looking up conditions on sites like WebMD has inconsistent results.
Symptom Checkers Available Online If You Can Reach A Doc
Feeling sick? Many people turn to the Web to diagnose themselves. But that can be dangerous. Now doctors are coming up with an online remedy...
Web-based Symptom Checkers: Travelers Aide or Not?
How useful are they? In vetting some of the most popular of these “checkers”, it appears that they produce a lot of information but fall short of providing definitive answers.
Googling our medical symptoms is making us sicker
Every year, Americans spend at least $20 billion on unnecessary medical visits in the US. This is one of the drivers behind the spiraling cost of health care, which is predicted to soar to $5.5 trillion by 2024. The last thing you’d imagine is that the internet would have anything to do with this. But guess again.
With Medical Websites, a Cough Is No Longer Just a Cough
The internet, among other things, is perfect for medical neuroses. But while self diagnosis may soothe, agitate or confirm, it doesn’t treat.
Should You Diagnose Yourself Online? Here’s What Doctors Think
Online symptom checkers are the digital version of the DIY doctor. Plug in what’s ailing you — headache, stomach pains, weird skin rash — and you get a list of what’s (likely) causing the problem. The key word is ‘likely.’
5 Scary Symptoms That Are Usually Harmless
After 50, aches, pains and the occasional muscle twinge become a fact of life. But some symptoms that may seem frightening or serious turn out to be far less than they appear.
CrowdMed
CrowdMed is revolutionizing healthcare by harnessing ‘the wisdom of crowds’ to help solve even the world’s most difficult medical cases quickly and accurately online. After 4 years of development and refinement, CrowdMed’s patented prediction market technology can suggest diagnoses to real-world medical cases that have stumped doctors for years.
FindZebra
The search engine for difficult medical cases.
Isabel
The Isabel Symptom Checker is very different. For the first time, it gives you access to a highly sophisticated medical diagnosis tool that is much more powerful than previously available symptom checkers. Using the latest searching technologies, the system can take a pattern of symptoms in everyday language and instantly compute from our vast database of 6,000 diseases, the most likely ones. It is based on the same system that is relied on by doctors and nurses around the world to help with diagnosis and is acknowledged as the clear leader in its field
MedWorm
MedWorm is a medical RSS feed provided as well as a Search Engine built on data collected from RSS feeds - Mayank Trivedi
DDx
DDx is medical shorthand for differential diagnosis, and this is a podcast about how doctors think and learn on the job. It’s hosted by Dr. Raj Bhardwaj and is produced by Figure 1, the global knowledge-sharing platform for medicine.
Diagnosis
Dr. Lisa Sanders recreates hard-to-solve medical case studies.
HumanDx
The Human Diagnosis Project (also referred to as "Human Dx" or "the Project") is a worldwide effort created with and led by the global medical community to build an online system that maps the best steps to help any patient. By combining collective intelligence with machine learning, Human Dx intends to enable more accurate, affordable, and accessible care for all.
MedHelp
MedHelp works with over 200 doctors and experts from the top medical institutions. MedHelp experts help millions of users each month by answering questions in Ask-an-Expert forums, participating in conversations with members in free live health chats, and sharing their knowledge and the latest news in blogs.
Symcat
A disease calculator that uses hundreds of thousands of patient records to estimate probability of disease. You may have heard of Watson by IBM, which illustrates a trend of computing and predictive analytics in healthcare. We strive to empower people and medical professionals by placing the state-of-the-art in computer diagnosis at their fingertips.
SymptomFind
Investigate your body’s specific signs and signals, and let us guide you toward the next practical steps.
SymptomMD
SymptomMD and KidsDoc are mobile applications designed especially for these times. They are symptom checkers, available on iTunes and the Android Market, to help you determine how urgently you or a loved one should seek medical attention (if at all) and what steps can be taken in the meantime for symptom relief.
YourDiagnosis.com
Your Free Online Medical Diagnosis & Symptoms Analysis Tool.
Best Doctors
Best Doctors provides access to the best medical minds in the world. You can be sure you’re getting the right diagnosis, the right treatment and the right care.
Drugs.com
Use the Drugs.com Symptom Checker to help you understand your medical symptoms and make informed decisions about your health and wellness.
ESAGIL
The main function of the software is to find matches between diseases and symptoms, and facilitate information about the appropriate drugs, treatments and healthcare centers worldwide. ESAGIL is a free tool that must be used exclusively for orientation purposes and under any circumstances it does not replace the opinion of the physicians. ESAGIL is a smart tool that is permanently updated and is intended to help people and healthcare professionals as a reminder tool. Therefore, it is open to different kind of contributions as simple advises, data (See Upload Data) and sponsorships.
EverydayHealth
Stephen Schueler, MD, is an emergency physician, teacher, and author. Although he designed the Symptom Checker to feel like a real emergency room intake interview, it is a computer program and not a live doctor. Its recommendations should not be used as a basis for delaying, or as a substitute for, evaluation and treatment by a physician.
Healthline
Experiencing mysterious medical symptoms? Healthline's Symptom Search provides an easy, interactive way to quickly find and research your symptoms.
HealthyChildren.org
Hover over the portion of the body where your child is experiencing symptoms. Click on the section to display a list of symptoms and select the symptom from the list. For a complete list of symptoms, select from the A—Z listing tab.
MayoClinic
What's causing your foot pain? Why does your child's throat hurt? And what should you do about it? Use this guide to discover the most common causes of the most common symptoms.
PetMD
Welcome to the petMD Symptom Checker, where you can easily search from over 2,000 dog and cat health articles based on the symptoms your pet is experiencing.
WebMD
Find your symptom or sign of disease by using the Symptom Checker. The WebMD Symptom Checker is designed to help you understand what your medical symptoms could mean, and provide you with the trusted information you can expect.
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