New app to self-diagnose, promote automation in healthcare

A doctor in the US state of Texas has created an app that he claims helps its user self-diagnose the symptoms of sickness, reduces "unnecessary" visits to a clinic and promotes automation in healthcare.
Houston-based Tarec Fahl turned to technology to create an "accurate" symptom checker that is gaining national attention.
With the Internet around, many go online when sick to check symptoms and self-diagnose. However, the problem is some of that information is wrong.
When Diane Beasley's youngest child started coughing, she picked up her phone. But not to call her doctor. To answer a series of questions on an app called DocResponse.

"The end diagnosis was bronchitis with the recommendation you go see your primary care physician," she said.
"So it saved three or four days of this poor kid suffering for nothing," she said.

That's one of the goals of this new technology, according to Fahl. But there is a more pressing reason.
"What we're trying to do is restrict or decrease the number of unnecessary visits to the er (emergency room) or a doctor's office," Fahl said.
The idea came when Fahl noticed patients heading to the Internet before heading to his clinic. But most of them were getting it all wrong.

Accuracy and algorithms is what makes DocResponse different. A study this july by Harvard Medical School found it listed "the correct diagnosis first" 150 per cent more often than WebMD and iTriage. And it was 300 per cent more often than the Mayo Clinic's symptom checker.
"Are we 100 per cent accurate? No. Nor are physicians," Fahl said. And this certainly doesn't take the place of physicians.
"But we are giving useful and accurate information for the user," he said. That's any user. The hope is fellow physicians, especially those without specialised training, will even use DocResponse in their offices.

"This is developed by sub-specialists who can give more knowledge to these primary care doctors," Dr Fahl said.
And as emergency rooms overflow with more than 136 million visitors per year, health care technology like this is necessary.
"We'll continue to make strides to make a better product and in the end, really change health care, to push toward automation," Fahl said.