Doctors get Google's help with diagnosis
Seems the latest people benefiting from Google’s world domination are doctors.
Research was carried out by Australian doctors in which they used Google to check the symptoms for 26 medical cases, without knowing the correct diagnoses. From the results, 16 cases were diagnosed accurately.
“Web-based search engines such as Google are becoming the latest tools in clinical medicine, and doctors in training need to become proficient in their use,” said the report. “Our study suggests it’s often useful to ‘Google’ for a diagnosis. We suspect that using Google to search for a diagnosis is likely to be more effective with unique symptoms and signs that can be easily used as search terms.”
Well, I suppose it’s another avenue of enquiry for diagnosing illnesses, though 16 out of 26 isn’t a huge success rate. After all, techie hypochondriacs must’ve been self-diagnosing with Google for years.
