Thank-you Dr Google
Ah, the New England Journal of Medicine.
I always found it a thumping good read, in the sense that the bound copies in the medical library made a very pleasing thump when dropped from a height onto a reading desk.
Anyway, how about this little item? Apparently a doctor - a fellow in allergy and immunology, no less - used Google to diagnose a difficult case.
And the search engine got it right:
“How did you make that diagnosis?” asked the professor. Came the reply, “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.”
Personally I’d like to think that there was still some professional input and judgement used by the doctor here. Even so, as the correspondent rightly observed, William Osler must be turning over in his grave.
(And yes, I did use Google to find that link on Osler…)