Digital Pathology Blog: Doctor’s Diagnosis, Version 2.0: "At least one in 12 patients who die has been diagnosed incorrectly, according to a 2003 analysis in The Journal of the American Medical Association. When trying to figure out the occasional difficult case, doctors sometimes get it wrong. Yet they rarely use the highly accurate computer systems designed to help with the identification of ailments.
Take the example of DXplain, one of the more popular diagnostic software tools around for physicians. DXplain is available for free on the Internet to every licensed health care professional in the United States. Yet fewer than one in 10 physicians has used the program during its more than 20 years on the market, estimated Dr. Edward Hoffer, a key DXplain developer and professor of medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston."
If we want to increase the utilisation of these programs, we should start allowing patients to use them. Patients have much more at stake; and will be much more willing to get an electronic second opinion, even if their doctors aren't ! Check out wwww.freemd.com which provides a patient-friendly version of Dxplain !
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