Comparison of Physician and Computer Diagnostic Accuracy

Comparison of Physician and Computer Diagnostic Accuracy The Institute of Medicine recently highlighted that physician diagnostic error is common and information technology may be part of the solution.1 Given advancements in computer science, computers may be able to independently make accurate clinical diagnoses.2 While studies have compared computer vs physician performance for reading electrocardiograms,3 the diagnostic accuracy of computers vs physicians remains unknown. To fill this gap in knowledge, we compared the diagnostic accuracy of physicians with computer algorithms called symptom checkers. Symptom checkers are websites and apps that help patients with self-diagnosis. After answering a series of questions, the user is given a list of rank-ordered potential diagnoses generated by a computer algorithm. Previously, we evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of 23 symptom checkers using 45 clinical vignettes.4 The vignettes included the patient’s medical history and had no physical examination or test findings. In this study we compared the diagnostic performance of physicians with symptom checkers for those same vignettes using a unique online platform called Human Dx.