Online Symptom Checkers Can't Replace The Real-Life Doc Just Yet

Researchers tested 23 online symptom checkers and found that the correct diagnosis was provided first on a list of potential illnesses only about a third of the time. That means symptom checkers are spitting out wrong diagnoses two-thirds of the time. "People who use these tools should be aware of their inaccuracy and not see them as gospel," says Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, who led the research and is a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School. "They shouldn't think that whatever the symptom checker says is what they have."

The study, published July 8 in The BMJ, examined some of the most popular online symptoms checkers, including Ask MD, iTriage, one from the United Kingdom's National Health Service and another from the Mayo Clinic. "Using computers to help diagnose and manage care is a new frontier," Mehrotra says. "This is just the first generation [of symptoms checkers], and I'm hopeful that this research can help them improve."