Presented with a lengthy list of symptoms afflicting an infant, a group of physicians and medical staffers hashed out potential diagnoses with a visiting professor, without reaching consensus; the woman presenting the case then disclosed her diagnosis and how she reached it.
That diagnosis of a rare syndrome known as IPEX was later confirmed by genetic testing. Paul Kedrosky posted a letter that appeared in the November 10th New England Journal of Medicine, recounting the incident.
The woman who made the diagnosis, herself a fellow in allergy and immunology, was questioned by the visiting professor as to how she made her diagnosis. “Well, I had the skin-biopsy report, and I had a chart of the immunologic tests. So I entered the salient features into Google, and it popped right up,” she replied.
In the letter, written by a doctor from New York, the future of medical professionals comes into question in a lengthy passage he wrote in closing:
Where does this lead us? Are we physicians no longer needed? Is an observer who can accurately select the findings to be entered in a Google search all we need for a diagnosis to appear, as if by magic?
The cases presented at clinicopathological conferences can be solved easily; no longer must the discussant talk at length about the differential diagnosis of fever with bradycardia.
Even worse, the Google diagnostician might be linked to an evidence-based medicine database, so a computer could e-mail the prescription to the e-druggist with no human involvement needed. The education of house staff is morphing into computer-search techniques.
Surely this is a trend to watch.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
