The Google search engine might have been in news for all the wrong reasons previously, however, a study published in the current issue of the British Medical Journal has called it an accurate diagnostic aid in difficult cases.

Googling for a diagnosis, an Internet based study done by two Australian researchers, Hangwi Tang and Jennifer Hwee Kwoon Ng of Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, found that Google searches revealed correct diagnosis. After doing blind search of signs and symptoms mentioned in 26 published cases in the New England Journal Of Medicine, Google search revealed correct results in most cases.

The researchers in the study thus concluded that “as Internet access becomes more readily available in outpatient clinics and hospital wards, the web is rapidly becoming an important clinical tool for doctors’’. They added that web searching may help doctors in diagnosing difficult cases as well.

With an objective to determine how often Google leads doctors to correct diagnosis, the researchers selected one year’s (2005) diagnostic cases published in the case records of the New England Journal of Medicine. They then selected three to five search terms for each case and entered them in the search engine — this was done randomly even before reading the differential diagnosis and conclusion for each case. Out of 26 cases from the New England Journal of Medicine, the percentage of correct diagnoses from Google searches was 15 and in others cases the search led to correct diagnosis.

However, this study has a few limitations, the researchers say. They say they chose combination of terms, signs and symptoms which they knew would not return a non-specific result. They say diagnosis was best for conditions with unique symptoms and signs that can be used as search terms. Searches are less likely to be successful in complex diseases with non-specific symptoms or common diseases with rare presentations.

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