GPs should Google diagnosis: study
November 11, 2006 — 1.05am
A new Australian study recommends doctors use Google to help diagnose difficult cases, despite indications it's only 60 per cent accurate.
Specialists at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane studied how effective the world's largest and most popular search engine is for helping diagnose rare diseases.
The work, published online by the British Medical Journal, recommends specialists use Google because it is now a source of three billion journal articles, more than any specialist search engine.
Several recent studies have shown the public often use the internet to self-diagnose, a trend that has alarmed many in the medical fraternity because of online inaccuracies.
"Our study suggests that in difficult diagnostic cases, it is often useful to Google for a diagnosis," write respiratory and sleep physician Hangwi Tang and consultant rheumatologist Jennifer Hwee Kwoon Ng.
"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."
The doctors collected journal articles about 26 rare diseases like endocrine condition Cushing's syndrome and the fatal brain disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
Using clusters of symptom-related words, they searched Google for a correct diagnosis and compared the internet diagnosis with those in the journals.
Google searches found the correct diagnosis in 15 - or 58 per cent - of cases proving, say the authors, that the engine is a useful aid, particularly if the condition has "unique" symptoms.
But patients doing a Google search may be less likely to reach the correct diagnosis than medical specialists because they don't have the same knowledge, they say.
Australian Medical Association president Mukesh Haikerwal said the internet was a popular source of information for doctors wanting more information about their cases, but it must be used carefully.
"It certainly is a very quick way of picking through the multiple and varied sources that are out there if you know how to do it properly," Dr Haikerwal said.
Professor Johanna Westbrook, deputy director of the Centre for Health Informatics at the University of NSW, said doctors were better off using a search engine connected to a specialised clinical database.
This (study) shows that Google can help but there's a lot of rubbish on there that can be avoided by searching a defined set of medical resources, she said.