Google Studied as Diagnosis Tool

After a long weekend and early week of travel visiting clients in Chicago, it's back to the blog.  Today's first bit of news is about Google and its increasing use among physicians as a research tool.  A new study in the British Medical Journal concludes that "web based searching may help doctors to diagnose difficult cases."

According to Dr. Robert Schwartz, professor and chariman of family medicine and community health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, "There has been a dramatic explosion of information.  Doctors, medical students, residents and faculty struggle with it every day, so any kind of a tool that's going to help you look at the data is welcome."

A potential drawback, says Dr. Hangwi Tang, lead author of the study, is self-diagnosis.  "I don't think search engines can ever replace a good clinician who has plenty of common sense."  Dr. Schwarz agrees, "To some degree, the only downside is the ability to interpret the information that you're getting.  You have to be careful. . . ."

The study methodology employed three to five search terms from each of 26 case records and searched Google for diagnoses that fit those symptoms/signs.  The search engine returned fifteen correct diagnoses, according to the researchers.

forbes.com article
British Medical Journal paper

Update: Check out this counter-argument to using Google for decision-support.
 

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Where to find the proper diagnosis tool 4 my laptop?
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Nice post... I agree to your thoughts... Google can be useful to search various case studies...

[William Bryson]

I absolutely agree. Ultimately we're in favor of ANY tech tools that can help. I've never understood why we expect doctors to keep all this information locked in their heads when it's available in books and on the web. We're glad to hear that it had benefits for you.

[ClickRich]

As a childhood sufferer of the rare condition henoch schönlein purpura, I can appreciate the difference such a tool can make. In the 80s, one very concerned and motivated mother was able to beat the doctors to the diagnosis. Why? Doctors can't be expected to know everything. This comes down to a piece of desktop research and in the days before the Internet one determined mother was more effective than a doctor sharing their time across many patients. Tools such as Google should begin to provide the search grunt where it's needed.

[William Bryson]

I'm not going to pull this down but I do want to point out that this is clearly written by someone with an interest in SearchMedica. The woman who posted this comment works for a British PR firm. I don't see any clear ties between her company and the search engine in question but I imagine there's a reason she posted such a concise outline of SearchMedica's benefits and reasons for inception. No reason not to check it out, though, so I'll leave it for folks to make their own decisions on - just wanted a disclaimer on this one.

[CMP Medica]

It's impossible for GPs to know everything and keep up to date with every medical development.
Using search technologies designed specifically for them - www.SearchMedica.co.uk - doctors can access the latest information on medical diagnosis and treatment and give their patients the best care and information available.
SearchMedica the UK's first dedicated GP search engine, was launched last month, helping doctors to cut through the danger of information overload and help them get to the important information they want quickly and easily. Practising UK GPs have been consulted in developing aspects of the site and they will continue to play an active role in its development.
It was developed in response to the research* which said that 45% GPs were disappointed with the relevance of information returned by generic search engines.