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The doctor certainly knows better than the patient, all else being equal. However, the patient has much more time, motivation, and contextual information about
by satyrnein 6y ago
The doctor certainly knows better than the patient, all else being equal. However, the patient has much more time, motivation, and contextual information about their situation. This leads to situations (some of the time) where a patient who has done a lot of research can outperform a doctor who spent 10 minutes doing an exam and making an educated guess based on demographic factors.
- arcticbull 6y agoI would love to see a study to back that up. I just don't think that in aggregate at the population level misdiagnoses would go down if people did it themselves. This study of online tools wasn't glowing [1]. "In comparison, other studies have found that Internet search engines for urgent symptoms led to content that suggested emergency medical treatment only 64 percent of the time." [1] It also found tooling less effective the less immediate the need for care was. "Overall, the software algorithms that the researchers studied listed the correct diagnosis first in 34 percent of cases." [1] [1] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/07/self-diagnosis-on-internet-not-good-practice/ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/07/self-diagnosi...
- satyrnein 6y agoCertainly not at the aggregate level. But if you have a chronic condition, and your doctor's advice isn't working, I think it's reasonable to do your own research even though in general the doctor knows best.
- arcticbull 6y agoTotally agree.