Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by matheusmoreira 2078 days ago
It correctly diagnosed appendicitis and also gave me an interesting differential. It did not correctly identify acute myocardial infarction and probable COVID-19 infection, but they were in the differential.

The software needs to be better at taking medical history. It doesn't try to figure out the symptoms. I input abdominal pain and instead of asking where it hurts and what the pain feels like it asked me if I have dyspepsia. I input chest pain and it asked me if I have angina pectoris.

How is a patient supposed to know? These are conclusions the doctor is supposed to reach based on the signs, symptoms, physical examination and tests.

I clicked on the information button for angina pectoris. Here's what it says:

> Angina pectoris is a term that describes chest pain due to myocardial ischemia.

> It is a common presenting symptom among patients with coronary artery disease.

It says nothing about what the pain is like. There's no way a patient would know.

I decided to make it easy for the software by answering yes to the above question... Myocardial infarction was the fourth item in the differential! It thinks pheochromocytoma is more likely.

> Is there enlargement of the liver?

> Is there generalized Lymphadenopathy?

> Is there enlargement of the spleen?

> Is there atrial fibrillation?

> Is there cardiac arrhythmia?

How would they know? Are people supposed to perform a physical examination on themselves? People go to medical school in order to learn how to do this. I've seen people who don't know where the liver and spleen are.

1 comments

You can look up the words you don't understand. Would be cool if you could do an ultrasound using your mobile.
> You can look up the words you don't understand.

The software could also simply ask the right questions. That way patients would not have to learn medicine in order to diagnose themselves.

> Would be cool if you could do an ultrasound using your mobile.

I agree, it would be amazing. Though it should be noted that ultrasonography is operator-dependent. Unlike other imaging technologies, it takes operator skill to find the anatomical structures with the wand.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3711733/

So I don't think users with no training would be able to effectively operate a mobile ultrasound.

I think, with a bit of practice and computer help you would be able to measure things. I however don't think most people would want/have time to learn.