Advice For Doctors Stumped By A Difficult-To-Diagnose Illness: Google It

By W. David Gardner

nov 10, 2006 10:42 AM

Doctors trying to find the correct diagnosis of difficult cases should try Google for an answer, according to a study published Friday by Australian researchers.

Physicians at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane decided to study the effectiveness of Google searches after they were impressed that a rare disease in one of their patients had been diagnosed in a Google search.

"Our study suggests that in difficult diagnostic cases, it is often useful to Google for a diagnosis," physicians Hangwi Tang and Jennifer Hwee Kwoon Ng wrote. "We suspect that using Google to search for a diagnosis is likely to be more effective for conditions with unique symptoms."

The study had an international tone as the Australian researchers studied cases reported in the New England Journal of Medicine and reported their findings in the British Medical Journal.

The Australian physicians picked three to five search terms for illnesses the New England Journal had listed as difficult to diagnosis. Then they carried out a Google search on each. They discovered that the Google searches were right in in correctly diagnosing 58 percent of the cases.

Even though Google didn't find the correct answer in all cases studied, the results illustrated that the online search engine can be useful, the Australian physicians said. "I think docs should use search engines like Google more often if they are stuck with a difficult diagnosis," said Dr. Tang, according to media reports. "It's quick, and has no harm, and is usually educational."

The Australian physicians also cited a case in the New England Journal in which a doctor astonished her colleagues when, confronted with a rare and difficult-to-diagnose form of thrombosis, she "Googled" the patient's symptoms and the correct diagnosis "popped right out."