BMJ  2006;333:1270 (16 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.39058.700266.3A

Letters

Use of Google as a diagnostic aid

Is Google like 10 000 monkeys?

The suggestion by Tang and Ng, that everything can be found on the web if only one knew the correct search terms is of course not surprising but invites some worrying conclusions¹:

• Lawyers can with ease and within minutes find cases of patients displaying certain symptoms which also include the correct diagnosis, which, they will suggest, a "negligent" clinician missed.
  
• The excuse, used since time immemorial, "I couldn't possibly know," and providing comfort to the ignorant, has lost some of its credibility.
  

One can find everything on Google, given time. Is Google perhaps the modern version of 10 000 monkeys sitting at 10 000 typewriters, who, given time, will eventually produce a true copy of Hamlet? Among the one correct version there will of course be thousands with just one or two typos. So, can Mark Twain's remark "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint"² be applied to Google?

¹ Twickenham TW2 7PS sleuthmedical@yahoo.com

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Competing interests: RW uses Google often, when appropriate.

References

1. Tang H, Ng JHK. Googling for a diagnosis—use of Google as a diagnostic aid: internet based study BMJ 2006;333:1143-5. (2 December.)[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. .http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

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Related Article

Googling for a diagnosis—use of Google as a diagnostic aid: internet based study

Hangwi Tang and Jennifer Hwee Kwoon Ng
BMJ 2006 333: 1143-1145. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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An after thought.

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bmj.com, 18 Dec 2006 [Full text]