The fact that 72 percent of people use the Internet for health-related queries has spurred the popularity of symptom checkers. Physicians have traditionally taken a skeptical view of patients using the Internet to figure out what they have, especially epitomized by the TV program House M.D. The underlying concern is that it will lead them to take action — either by deciding they don’t need to see a doctor or concluding they have a condition that they don’t.
Although hospital and doctor relationships with patients has been evolving, it looks like physicians are modifying their position with a “if we can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach.
The Wall Street Journal reported that physicians and hospitals are using these tools to improve communication and engagement with patients. According to a story on the subject:
“Now more health-care providers are turning the tables, steering patients to new and improved computerized symptom-checkers that make it easier for them to get reliable information about possible diagnoses, research their condition and even connect directly to a doctor. Doctors are adding these tools to their websites and incorporating them into electronic medical records, encouraging patients to use them before office visits to save time and make consultations more productive.”
There are also a number of companies that have developed symptom checkers or incorporated them into their websites. WebMD, for instance, updated a symptom checker on its website last year so that people can print out reports to present physicians or for their own use.
iTriage Created by two emergency room physicians, the symptom checker was acquired by Aetna in 2011. It also helps users find health facilities or physicians in their area.
MedWhat This symptom checker developed startup’s symptom checker uses open source data from respected medical institutions and natural language processing to allow users to ask questions in their own words. The company graduated from Stanford University’s startup accelerator StartX. So far it has raised $100,000 from investors.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
SymCat or Symptom based Computer Assisted Triage ranks the most likely medical conditions based on users’ symptoms and suggests care alternatives based on triage guidelines from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. It was developed by Craig Monsen and David Do, both Johns Hopkins University medical school students and graduates of startup accelerator Blueprint Health. The app also provides home care instructions, facilitates appointment scheduling, and maps nearby urgent care and emergency rooms.
HealthTap A hybrid of symptom checkers and doctor queries is HealthTap. Although it does not claim to replace an in person visit, users can submit queries to personal health issues and receive responses from a pool of physicians.
