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The Democratization of Medical Diagnosis and Discovery

Posted by Soulskill on from the next-level-hypochondria dept.

An anonymous reader writes: As wearable fitness devices become popular, we're seeing the beginning of a change in how untrained people can monitor their own health. On top of that, we also have access now to powerful data-sharing tools — if a patient has the means and the interest to look at the data from a doctor's medical scans, she can. A post at the NY Times argues this is leading to the democratization of medical discovery. Physicians and researchers are now saying, "Better-informed patients ... are more likely to take better care of themselves, comply with prescription drug regimens and even detect early-warning signals of illness." These tools also allow easier aggregation of data from large groups of patients (hopefully anonymized), which can provide more accurate assessments of the typical course of disease than current methods, which often rely on interpretations of interpretations.

3 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Other unintended side effects by halivar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It also leads to rampant, self-diagnosing webochondria. I will admit, I am an offender in this respect.

    1. Re:Other unintended side effects by Nrrqshrr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah well, I once went to a GP thinking that I had cancer because it was what the internet said I had. He nearly got mad at me for bringing the internet up because, according to him, if every person who self-diagnosed their cancer actually had it, half the country would be on chemo by now. He proceeded to rant on how misinformed people on the internet are and after a check up told me that I had some unwarranted worries and everything was fine.

      It was a testicular cancer anyway.

  2. Medical knowledge is not a special case by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All knowledge of any kind, leads certain types of people to believe they know more than they do.

    "I watched every episode of LA Law, and I'm telling you, they are going to have to acquit that guy. Fruit of the poison tree! Fruit of the poison tree!"

    "I've watched lots of porn so I know how to please a woman."

    "I installed Wordpress, and now I know how to store things in a database. You just update_post_meta()! OMG, you're still using fields?! Loser."