The authors of that now-famous BMJ study worry about the fire they started:
“Some have misinterpreted our paper as advocating the use of Google as a main tool in diagnosis,” Tang says.A quick Google search soon after the release of the study, “Googling for a Diagnosis,” in the November online British Medical Journal, shows he may have some cause for concern. Amid growing interest in how physicians use the Internet, some comments posted on health blogs and websites after the study came out suggested that search engines are as good as doctors, one even saying they are “a better diagnostic tool than the stethoscope.”
What some in the blogosphere missed, Tang says, is that the Internet is particularly useful in the hands of a physician or other healthcare experts. “Clinicians have a better handle on which symptoms are unusual and for the technical terms for the symptoms,” he says. The more precise the search terms, the more accurate the diagnosis. “Also, there’s a lot of rubbish on the Web, and an expert can weed that out quickly.”
Related posts:
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- Searching for health on the web often leads to the most dire diagnoses
- Patients Googling doctors
- Should search engines have built-in diagnostics?
- Does it matter how doctors give patients their diagnosis?
- Overconfident residents
{ 8 comments }
Google diagnosed my teenager’s testicular torsion at quarter to four this morning, and the articles pulled up helped his alarmed but stupid with sleep parents get him to the ER ASAP…get him triaged properly (it helped) – and to push the doc to attempt manual detorsion of the testicle. He actually didn’t want to try that as he had never had much success with the manouever before, and preferred to simply wait for the urologist he’d called for the necessary surgery.
He did try detorsion, and was amazed at the correction he got, which got even better after the second try done after ultrasound. The urologist was quite pleased at the condition of the testicle at surgery, and he was very glad the detorsion hadn’t waited on his arrival a couple hours after our arrival at the ER.
Yay google.
My boy lost his testicle due to torsion. But, since his happened in his mother’s womb, it could not be helped.
Google did not help in this case, but Medline did.
-Dr. Steve
I went to radioshack today. My comcast guy said I need a combiner and a demodulator for my satelite/cable line. The radioshack supervisor (a highly knowledgeable chap I’ve know for 10 years) said he has combiner and said he doesn’t know what a demodulator was though. He came back a few minutes later. “A demodulator doesn’t exist, I checked it on google and nothing came up.”
Google, behold the power to say something exists or does not!! Tpye you name, if nothing comes up, maybe you too don’t exist.
Be a good intelligent physician. Only use tools to augment, not replace.
Happy Holidays everyone
“He did try detorsion, and was amazed at the correction he got, which got even better after the second try done after ultrasound. The urologist was quite pleased at the condition of the testicle at surgery, and he was very glad the detorsion hadn’t waited on his arrival a couple hours after our arrival at the ER.”
If I come to the ER, and mt testicle is torsed, please don’t try to manually detorse me because it says so in Google. Please don’t touch my testicle! I used to try that because they taught it in residency, and after torturing about 10 kids, I stopped. Nothing is worse then a kid coming to the ER at 4 am and a parent demanding some test or procedure becuase they read it in google. I actually have been told I’ll be sued if I don’t order a Cat Scan. I’m bitter so I give in. Some docs won’t give in so easy and irradiate kids unnecessarily. As to detorsion, an ultrasound takes 15 minutes, is only necessary in obvious cases because of the lawyers,(Only an idiot can’t differentiate torsion from torsion of the appendix or epididymitis) and a patient can get to the OR in less then an hour. Manual detorsion is torture. Did they mention that in Google?
With repsect, the detorsion did not torture my child. He had been given heavy painkiller and did not suffer, in fact it made my son *more* comfortable.
The detorsion was not a diagnostic procedure. FWIW It was repeated and “improved” upon after the ultrasound.
The benefit of eliminating the torsion was restored blood flow and improvement of discomfort. If I had to take one opinion over the other, it would be that of the urologist who was glad the detorsion was done and believed it had made it much more likely that my son would keep his testicle instead of lose it.
Bollocks!!!!
The preferred treatment is immediate reduction and repair surgically – detorsion has and should be relegated to the history books!
Urologist redux
In a perfect world, an experienced surgeon would be on hand to treat testicular torsion.
Detorsion is no substitute for surgery.
However, you lost me when you insisted my kid experienced pain he himself denies, and which I did not observe.
I tend to agree the ultrasound was not terribly useful, but it did while away the hours we waited for the urologist to appear.
In the meantime, blood flow was restored to the testicle and my son felt better.
Based on what the urologist said, I think it was helpful in my son’s case.
I was amused today when I went in to see a doctor about some heart palpitations. After explaining every detail I could think of related to my symptoms, the resident nodded slowly and asked, “Have you tried Googling for your symptoms?” Was this a trick question? Was he trying to trap me into saying I was self-diagnosing? I couldn’t think of anything that I’d just said that would have sounded like a diagnosis, only symptoms. Did I say some combination of symptoms that drug addicts usually claim? I told him that I looked online, like most ‘Net-savvy people do nowadays, but didn’t see anything obvious that matched my symptoms.
Looking a little disappointed, he responded, “Sometimes it helps if patient already has a diagnosis.”
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