Digital Smarts - Dr. Google May Be In, But You Might Want to Think Twice About Visiting

Telehealth with a live health care provider is proving to be a lifesaver during this pandemic, but it seems computers aren’t going to be taking over the medical field anytime soon. An analysis of 36 international mobile and web-based medical apps found that online symptom checkers that provide diagnosis or triage advice come up with the correct diagnosis as the first result only 36% of the time, and as one of the top three results only 52% of the time. Advice to seek medical attention for emergency and urgent conditions was correct 60% of the time, but accuracy was only 30% to 40% for nonurgent care, researchers reported in the Medical Journal of Australia.