European Journal of Internal Medicine
Volume 20, Issue 8 , Pages 788-790 , December 2009

Do PubMed and Google searches help medical students and young doctors reach the correct diagnosis? A pilot study

  • Matthew E. Falagas

      Affiliations

    • Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences (AIBS), Athens, Greece
    • Department of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences (AIBS), 9 Neapoleos Street, 151 23 Marousi, Greece. Tel.: +30 694 61 10 000; fax: +30 210 68 39 605.
    • ,
  • Fotinie Ntziora

      Affiliations

    • Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences (AIBS), Athens, Greece
    • ,
  • Gregory C. Makris

      Affiliations

    • Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences (AIBS), Athens, Greece
    • ,
  • George A. Malietzis

      Affiliations

    • Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences (AIBS), Athens, Greece
    • ,
  • Petros I. Rafailidis

      Affiliations

    • Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences (AIBS), Athens, Greece

Received 30 December 2008 ,Revised 23 July 2009 ,Accepted 30 July 2009.

References 

  1. Giustini D. How Google is changing medicine. BMJ. 2005;331:1487–1488
  2. Greenwald R. And a diagnostic test was performed. N Engl J Med. 2005;359:2089–2090
  3. Tang H, Ng JH. Googling for a diagnosis—use of Google as a diagnostic aid: Internet based study. BMJ. 2006;333:1143–1145
  4. Guru KA, Kuvshinoff BW, Pavlov-Shapiro S, Bienko MB, Aftab MN, Brady WE, et al. Impact of robotics and laparoscopy on surgical skills: a comparative study. J Am Coll Surg. 2007;204:96–101
  5. Siempos II, Spanos A, Issaris EA, Rafailidis PI, Falagas ME. Non-physicians may reach correct diagnoses by using Google: a pilot study. Swiss Med Wkly. 2008;138:741–745
  6. Editorial Don't fear the robot scientist. Nature. 2004;427:181

PII: S0953-6205(09)00156-3

doi: 10.1016/j.ejim.2009.07.014

European Journal of Internal Medicine
Volume 20, Issue 8 , Pages 788-790 , December 2009

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