cyberchondria

As someone who has never taken advantage of the various medical websites available, I had no idea cyberchondria existed. I always knew there were hypochondriacs somewhere out there among us, so why wouldn't they have Internet access? They do, therein lies your problem. Unfortunately, technology has made it easier for these sick people to feed their sickness. It acts as an enabler; self diagnosis at your fingertips!!! Those people have already made up their minds as to what they have anyway and manipulating those websites is easier than brushing your teeth. I'm sure that right now, because I am experiencing a little lower back discomfort, I could go on one of those sites and discover that I really have a herniated disc and need surgery immediately. Of course my lower back pain has nothing to do with slouching and not having good posture, right?
Horvitz is on the right track when challenging the sites to start incorporating likelihoods and probabilities based on family history, age, and what not. What is going to end up happening, if it already hasn't, is having your medical file accessible over the net, so medical history and everything your doctor knows about you will be available for viewing and diagnosing.