Online Diagnosis
Posted by Medical Fan - 19/03/09 at 04:03 amMedical Symptom List from Online Diagnosis: Reliable or Not?
Traditionally, a doctor comes up with a proper diagnosis – in order to recommend proper treatment – after physically examining his patient and the symptoms he is suffering from. Aside from physical examination, the doctor also asks his patient information on his medical history, including the illnesses and medications he’s had in the past, both recent and from long ago. The doctor may also ask his patient to undergo further testing if the symptoms are unclear and may pertain to a variety of diseases or disorders. Thanks to advancements in technology, patients now have the option to skip seeing their doctor and get a diagnosis via the Internet. Websites that offer online diagnosis services usually have a medical symptom list to help patients.
A medical symptom list is basically a list of known symptoms of illnesses often listed in alphabetical order. A patient can comfortably stay at home and just log on into his computer and search the Internet for websites that offer online diagnosis services. Then he can check the symptom list provided by the website of his choice and the website, through a patented technology, will determine the illness he has. If the symptoms may be those of a number of diseases, the website will also come up with several diagnoses. In such a case, the patient must read, as well as compare, the underlying traits of each of the illnesses.
Using a medical symptom list from the Internet, while no doubt convenient, is not generally considered as a reliable method for getting a proper diagnosis. Websites acknowledge this fact by telling users to consult a doctor for final symptom analysis.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:18 pm
[...] Medical Fan put an intriguing blog post on Online DiagnosisHere’s a quick excerptMedical Symptom List from Online Diagnosis: Reliable or Not? Traditionally, a doctor comes up with a proper diagnosis – in order to recommend proper. [...]