Is Google search a useful medical diagnostic tool for third year medical students?
- Author:
Sivalingam Nalliah
;
Joanne Pereira
;
Lim Shin Tom
;
Vyshanavi Jayasingam
;
Phang Gin Ga
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Google search;
diagnosis;
clinical case;
congruency
- MeSH:
Diagnosis
- From:International e-Journal of Science, Medicine and Education
2015;9(3):33-37
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Introduction: In recent years, the internet has become
an increasingly popular tool for people to obtain
information due to the overwhelming availability of
material. As internet access becomes more readily
available, the newer generation of patients, medical
students and doctors are starting to prefer the internet
as a source of reference to acquire medical knowledge.
The main objectives of this study were to determine the
accuracy of using Google search in establishing a clinical
diagnosis based on information provided from the
New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and to
determine the concordance rate of Google diagnosis
with the actual diagnosis from NEJM.
Method: The research design was a cross sectional study
of 200 NEJM cases. The research team comprised of
four 3rd year medical students and one senior supervisor.
Google search engine was used to obtain a diagnosis.
The time allocated for a Google search for each case was
20 minutes regardless of the number of websites used.
The top two diagnoses were then compared to the actual
diagnoses of the NEJM case and the accuracy of Google
was then assessed.
Results: The study achieved a congruence of 71.5%.
This is considered acceptable and satisfactory as the
cases presented in NEJM covered a wide variety of
problems and encompassed rare diseases.
Conclusion: From the final results obtained, it can
be concluded that with the aid of Google, medical
students in their 3rd year of their Bachelor of Medicine
and Bachelor of Surgery programme are able to obtain a
reasonable clinical diagnosis.
- Full text:P020151207422736729402.pdf
