WebMD: The future of diagnostics?

Everyone has done it. Had the sniffles, googled their symptoms and convinced themselves that they are dying of an obscure, tropical illness. Is Google really the answer? Are we becoming more reliant on the impersonal, faceless internet than doctors who have received year upon year of specialist training?

WebMD and similar websites allow someone to list their symptoms and use this to immediately self-diagnose ailments – often incorrectly. I have certainly been a victim of this affliction. My impatience to know what was wrong quicker than the next day appointment led me to misdiagnosing my ear infection as a tumour.

Jade Williamson, a management student, was so convinced she had HIV that she psychologically triggered a rash very similar to one HIV sufferers develop. “I was certain my life had changed,” she explained. “All of my symptoms matched, I was so sure I had HIV. I began googling support programmes in our area”. Suffice to say, she did not have HIV; however, it took two tests and weeks of worry before her mind was at rest. Had she gone straight to a GP, perhaps she would have been spared this distress.

Diagnostic tools, such as WebMD, areas likely to tell you have the common cold as they are to diagnose you with something out of an episode of House

Everybody knows the detrimental effect that stress can have on your health. Amongst other things, stress can cause lethargy, depression and loss of appetite. Reports conclude that stress also lowers the effectiveness of the immune system which, ironically, makes you more likely to get other illnesses. Some scientists claim this is caused because stress triggers an inflammatory response. When this is sustained, cells are unable to respond to hormonal triggers that are produced when an infection is recognised.

Obviously, there are many times when internet diagnosis has helped. Earlier this month, the Daily Mail reported the story of Sallie Powell. For seven years, Sallie had been suffering severe bloating, joint pain and memory loss, amongst an array of other symptoms. When a doctor mentioned in passing that she had elevated calcium levels in her blood, she was able to finally diagnose herself with the rare condition, hyperparathyroidism. After receiving the appropriate treatment, she has “gone from feeling 95 to 35, again”. Yet, is this the exception rather than the rule?

A question that Sallie Powell’s case does raise is why didn’t the doctors catch it? Why did the computer programme diagnose acondition that doctors couldn’t? Are Web-MD and other programmes the future of medicine?