Evaluation of symptom checkers for self diagnosis and triage: audit study

First, I commend Professor Mehrotra and his associates for completing such an arduous task of evaluating and comparing multiple symptom checkers to assess their accuracy and publishing their results.

These results are very useful in helping us assess where our deficiencies are as a whole in the symptom checker space and will assist us in improving our accuracy and recommendations. Whether we like it or not, users/patients will continue to use symptom checkers due to their convenience and little to no cost. It is our responsibility as healthcare professionals to provide accurate and useful information to users/patients to better educate themselves in order to make appropriate decisions in regards to their health.

I am very encouraged by our start-up DocResponse's ability to get the diagnosis correct at the number 1 spot in 50% of the cases, thereby providing the most accurate solution on the market. I do believe healthcare will continue to go down this path and symptom checkers will become more accurate in the future. We are on the cusp of revolutionizing healthcare.