December 7th 2010- Online Diagnosis

Our main focus in todays class was the topic of Online Diagnosis. Online diagnosis is fairly self-explanatory, and it refers to the diagnosis from "online doctors". By inputing necessary information (symptoms) in the search engine of the certain website, the computer makes the diagnosis of your possible disease/disorder. Online diagnosis is popular for its free services. You can get diagnoses' for free and by paying extra, you can get further, detailed diagnoses' of you possible disease. Some patients may feel embarrassed or shy during face-to-face consultations, so online diagnosis is very beneficial for such individuals. The advantages of Online Diagnosis are the conveniency and availability. Since the diagnosis is done on the web (internet), you can access the page24/7. As mentioned earlier, it is also free and fast. Patients do not need to spend money on transportation fees to go see a doctor in town, instead, they can get a diagnosis done online. Though online diagnosis may sound very advantageous, there are still many issues to consider. Equality of access is probably the one foremost important issue. Online diagnosis cannot be carried out without a computer and without a computer, the whole concept is useless. People without access to the internet or even people without a computer cannot perform online diagnosis. Another issue is reliability. Since computers are prone to glitches, the online diagnosis may provide you with false or misleading diagnosis'.

Article of the day:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10340/1108273-114.stm

Video: A video discussing the dangers of Online Diagnosis