“It happens in almost every doctor’s office, hospital, or clinic: a patient comes in with a stack of internet printouts and an outrageous self-diagnosis, convinced they have cancer, tuberculosis, or dengue fever. Physicians shake their heads and treat their paranoid patients for allergies or the flu, warning them about relying too heavily on “Dr. Google”. A new survey by Philips now reveals that one in four Americans trust mobile health resources as much as their own doctor, which is worrying news for highly trained physicians now competing with an unregulated 99 cent product from an app store… …If the 50% of patients who habitually turn to their smartphones to diagnose themselves can just as easily send a question to a nurse or schedule an appointment, physicians might not have to deal with upset, frantic patients worried about sleeping sickness or the plague quite as often”

Jennifer Bresnick, EHR Intelligence reporting on this infographic from Philips Healthcare.

Isn’t it obvious that the significant mHealth opportunity is not in “sending a question to a nurse” or “scheduling an appointment” but in providing patients with convenient, reasonably priced access to registered Doctors who are prepared to provide them with documented advice?

Further information: Click here to learn more about the evidence base for the interactive patient history taking questionnaires that we make available to patients via 3G Doctor’s secure mobile website.