{"id":8478,"date":"2015-07-15T12:25:52","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T16:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=8478"},"modified":"2015-07-15T12:25:52","modified_gmt":"2015-07-15T16:25:52","slug":"online-symptom-checkers-only-provide-a-correct-diagnosis-33-percent-of-the-time-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/07\/15\/online-symptom-checkers-only-provide-a-correct-diagnosis-33-percent-of-the-time-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Online symptom checkers only provide a correct diagnosis 33 percent of the time, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Need we say more? – NCCT<\/em><\/p>\n

The Internet has made it possible to self-diagnose virtually any ailment right from a mobile device or computer without having to step foot into a doctor\u2019s office. Sites like WebMD are unparalleled in terms of convenience, offering a general diagnosis in minutes with the potential to save hundreds or even thousands of dollars in medical bills.<\/p>\n

But just how accurate are online symptom checkers (and do you really want to gamble with your health)?<\/p>\n

Researchers from Harvard Medical School recently completed the first large-scale study on the accuracy of online symptom checkers. Study leader Ateev Mehrotra said his team created a list of symptoms based on 45 specific medical scenarios. The symptoms were then entered into 23 commonly used symptom checkers in the US, the UK, the Netherlands and Poland.<\/p>\n

Results showed that symptom checkers were only able to correctly identify an illness on the first attempt about a third of the time. A correct diagnosis was included in the top three suggestions 51 percent of the time. When looking at the top 20 suggestions, the rate of success rose to just 58 percent.<\/p>\n

Or in other words, symptom checkers are free for a reason.<\/p>\n

Mehrotra noted, however, that getting advice about whether or not to seek medical attention and how quickly one should visit a doctor can be more important than a correct diagnosis. Conversely, the team also found that online checkers were quick to recommend a doctor\u2019s visit when in reality, self-treating was sufficient for a particular ailment.<\/p>\n

via Online symptom checkers only provide a correct diagnosis 33 percent of the time, study finds – TechSpot<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Need we say more? – NCCT The Internet has made it possible to self-diagnose virtually any ailment right from a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[771,942],"class_list":["post-8478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-online-computer-repair","tag-scams"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-2cK","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5671,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/06\/06\/one-in-seven-americans-were-notified-of-personal-data-breaches-last-year\/","url_meta":{"origin":8478,"position":0},"title":"One in seven Americans were notified of personal data breaches last year","author":"NCCT","date":"June 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Personal data theft has become an increasing concern for everyone, but according to a recent Consumer Reports survey, most US consumers do nothing to protect themselves even with data theft on the rise. The survey found that one in seven Americans, or around 45 million people, were notified that their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Networking"","block_context":{"text":"Networking","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/networking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8455,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/07\/08\/hacking-team-spyware-company-allegedly-breached-400gb-of-data-dumped-online\/","url_meta":{"origin":8478,"position":1},"title":"Hacking Team spyware company allegedly breached, 400GB of data dumped online","author":"NCCT","date":"July 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"An Italian developer of surveillance software, Hacking Team, which has previously been sharply criticized by digital activists, has apparently suffered a large data breach. Hacking Team develops surveillance tools that it has maintained are legally sold to governments for law-abiding investigations. 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The findings, first reported by Pro Publica, show how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8467,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/07\/14\/china-retains-supercomputing-crown-as-u-s-representation-lingers-near-historic-lows\/","url_meta":{"origin":8478,"position":3},"title":"China retains supercomputing crown as U.S. representation lingers near historic lows","author":"NCCT","date":"July 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A supercomputer developed by China\u2019s National Defense University remains the fastest publically known computer in the world while the U.S. is close to an historic low in the latest edition of the closely followed Top 500 supercomputer ranking, which was published on Monday. The Tianhe-2 computer, based at the National\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Networking"","block_context":{"text":"Networking","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/networking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5738,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/06\/13\/pc-gaming-is-on-the-rise-in-the-console-vs-pc-race-it-looks-like-pc-is-surging-ahead\/","url_meta":{"origin":8478,"position":4},"title":"PC gaming is on the rise: In the console vs. PC race, it looks like PC is surging ahead","author":"NCCT","date":"June 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Since our last video game survey, the industry has undergone some major changes, including the debut of both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. But does that mean that mobile, PC, and Nintendo gaming have faded even further away? 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And Apple acquires Pixelmator. \u2022 Early Apple M4 Pro and M4 Max benchmarks hint at a massive performance boost. \u2022\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Apple"","block_context":{"text":"Apple","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/apple\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/etW5-oInyGA\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}