When It Comes To Getting A Diagnosis, Doctor Knows Best
In a matchup with symptom-checker apps, a real physician outperformed them by a margin of more than 2 to 1, according to a new report.
Los Angeles Times:
Your Phone May Be Smart, But Your Doctor Still Knows More Than An App
If you’re feeling sick and you want to know what’s wrong with you, there’s an app for that. But the diagnosis won’t be as accurate as the one you’d get from a doctor — not by a long shot. In a head-to-head comparison, real human physicians outperformed a collection of 23 symptom-checker apps and websites by a margin of more than 2 to 1, according to a report published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. (Kaplan, 10/10)
In other health technology news —
Bakersfield Californian:
Robot Extends Reach Of Bakersfield Surgeons
Since January, Kern Medical Center has been one of only four hospitals in California that have the da Vinci Xi surgical system. This fourth-generation development in robotic technology allows a surgeon’s hand movements to be converted into smaller, precise movements of tiny instruments inside a patient’s body. The da Vinci includes a small camera that sends images to a video monitor in the operating room that guides doctors during surgery. Since its acquisition, surgeons in a variety of specialties have performed close to 100 minimally invasive surgeries at KMC using the da Vinci robot. (Mayer, 10/8)