Medical Advice Online + CD

What is medical advice online?

Medical advice online is a way of getting medical knowledge through the Internet. There are many websites on the Internet that provide medical advices. In this way, the users are enabled to gain further knowledge and awareness to their health. In other words, this is one type of telemedicine that is mentioned before. Furthermore, similar to diagnosis software, medical advice online uses expert system. The websites will ask the patient series of questions (often about symptoms) and the patients will be guided towards the solution depending on their own answer. In the end, there will be an advice to the patient (usually possible treatments). Rather than visiting the actual doctor face by face, the patient can gain relevant information by himself. The advice was given through CDs in the past, however, these are not used these days due to the increase in popularity of the Internet.

Here is an interesting website that gives some advice on the swing flue that has recently been spreading all around the world:
http://www.nhs.uk/NHSDirect/Pages/nhsdlanding.aspx

IT technology used

- User friendly
- Expert system
- Database: all information stored
- Internet connection
- Wireless

Advantages

- Users can gain knowledge at home
- No transportation and also its cost - especially beneficial for those who are ill and cannot move from their homes
- Time efficient - immediate solution

Disadvantage and issues

- The solutions are not definite
- Reliability: Because the software runs by an expert system, it cannot be fully trusted. There are many illness and disease that have similar symptoms so there may be difficulities identifying the problem. There may be misleading solutions from the software. Therefore, the saftey of the patient is not ensured.
- Time consuming and high cost in order to create this software.
- Security: Hackers or any other external attacks may modify the database in a bad way. This will lead to a serious issue because the software deals with human health.
- Equality of access: Only people who has internet connection can use this.

Bibliography
http://www.webmd.com/