Should comforting hypochondriacs really be part of their mission?
Slate examines the issue of cyberchondria, where people use search engines to look up their symptoms, often returning anxiety-provoking, but rare, diagnoses.
It’s suggested that patients may be better served by going to a dedicated health website, where more common conditions are listed up top. However, two-thirds of people go to a search engine first, where the results are not filtered.
One solution would be for diagnostics to be built into the results, where more data is asked for, like age, sex, and a brief description of the symptom. With that information, more relevant conditions can then be given.
