Google: It’s the way doctors find out about your condition, just like you

What do you do when you want to find out more about a health problem?  Right.  You go on Google, or a similar search engine, and look through the results.  Guess what doctors are doing when they want to find out about your health problem?  Right.  They go on Google, and look through the results.

A new study has found that the Web gives doctors an excellent and helpful overview of some of the more difficult or obscure health conditions.  The study put Google through its paces on 26 different cases, and discovered it came up with correct diagnoses in 15 – or 58 per cent – of them.

(Source:  British Medical Journal, 2006; 333: 1143-5).


E-news broadcast 7 December 2006 No.316 [Subscribe]

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