Show HN: Get Well Soon – AI-based online diagnosis
getwellsoon.mlThis site demonstrates quite efficiently why it's plainly illegal to advertise the claims that it makes in the headline.
Especially when I type in "stomach" (a very very common ailment is stomach discomfort) and there are two results: "vomiting on an empty stomach" and "abdominal pain, exacerbating on an empty stomach". There's nothing for "intestine", which intestinal discomfort is pretty high up the list as well. These are things I might turn to the Internet for advice, even if it's just "take some Tums and lay down".
There's a ton of stuff for heart-related issues though, something I'd never risk an answer gotten online for.
I flagged this submission. It's not just letting you explore symptoms, but collecting names and ages from individuals without a bare minimum effort to post any kind of privacy policy. Who's behind the site? How can I contact their HIPAA privacy officer (a requirement in the US at least)?
This is an open source demo application. Not a commercial website, neither intend to be one. Here is the code - https://github.com/mastercoder82/getwell-soon Look for yourself and check if your name is collected, social-engineered or sold to insurance companies.
P.S - If you have even little knowledge about browser dev console, you will know that the name doesn't even leave your browser.
There are a few counter-arguments to that. First, it's impossible to determine that the source on GitHub is the same as what is deployed to a server. Additionally, having to locally debug any given site in order to trace whether or not information is being transmitted is an unrealistic expectation.
I trust that your intentions are in the right place, just that when it comes to medical-related things it's worthwhile to err on the side of caution. If some information is not being used, it's best not to ask for it in the first place.
Makes sense. Removed the "name" field.
So, our family doctor jokes that patients would come to him and say 'Oh, I googled whats wrong with me, I just need your second opinion' :)
Jokes aside, human doctors won't be replaced in foreseeable future, but many people will screw up their lives because non-human gave them the diagnosis (to read, or ai, or webpage), and be late for receiving the appropriate medications.
Think Theranos, but with far greater potential (because there are no physical tests here, it's just text, so the reach is greater) to screw people to not seek the correct help, in a timely manner.
If anything, there should be law outlawing websites like this.
"If anything, there should be law outlawing websites like this."
There is, don't worry. This would be 'Standalone Software' that is labeled as:
"intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, in man or other animals"
So, by claiming to be a Medical Device, it's regulated. And since it seems to be a pretty lousy, unapproved, medical device, it's actually illegal.
Maybe when Theranos.com comes available, these guys could try to snag it though!
[1]http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulationandGuidanc...
I'm curious -- does this kind of regulation apply to a site like WebMD as well?
my family doctor is quite happy that patients do research. She says that while some are hypochondriacs who have all the diseases in Google, most of the time it is useful for the patients to have spent some time researching. It saves her explanation time when the patient is informed, and also some edge cases pop up where the patient came in with a good insight.
Maybe it's just me but I find most doctors both dismissive and rushed. They just throw pills at you without much consideration and then on to the next patient -- can hardly get a word in. Doing your own research may in fact be critical to your health, though doctors are not likely to be interested in discussing the details.
It's not just you but in the US it mostly depends on your health insurance and luck/research. My current plan is an HMO/PPO hybrid with a very large network so I get great doctors and never feel rushed. Since my plan doesn't require a primary care physician I just went to each doctor under my plan, one by one sorted by online reviews, until I found the right one. A good doctor's office will also keep track of where their patients go for specialized care so I just go to the specialists recommended by my primary doctor and never have a problem with quality.
Every time I visit my doctor, I have to remind him of all the conditions I had mentioned in previous visits. Is this normal?
Sounds like you just have terrible doctors ... you should do as much research and find a competent provider.
Well I'm still hoping for a "I'm feeling lucky" button for this. Type in a symptom, get redirected straight to a product page of an online pharmacy.
Looks like you missed this prominently placed note: "Online diagnosis is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be treated as a doctor's advice or medical consultation."
Having said that, this is not a commercial website. This is an open source[1] demo showing how can an online checkup tool work.
I don't think such kind of informational tools is a bad thing, even if they are commercial. In fact, these tools are helpful for personal research. Of course, actual diagnosis and treatment should be left to medical professionals. AI application in the medical domain is still in nascent stage and can presently only work as "assistive" at best. It is not going to become "prescriptive" or replace professionals in near future.
I'm getting an Internal server error on every click to Submit.
AJAX Post in dev tools: 403 Forbidden Authentication Failed
I just gave this details for a common, non-life threatening condition and it suggested the likeliest condition (at 1% probability) was lung cancer.
Still being worked on, I suppose.
Apparently my shoulder pain is caused by...an internal server error?
As is my post nasal drip. I always suspected I was a cylon.
Good idea though.
sounds like a prescription for caching, take twice daily
So is my dry mouth.
The API calls point to https://api.infermedica.com/v2/diagnosis which is currently yielding a 403 Forbidden on every query. It looks like https://symptomate.com/diagnosis/ uses the same API and is currently functional, for what it's worth. (I certainly have no affiliation and would not endorse any of these tools.)
For what it's worth, I tried a query about chest pain lasting 5 minutes and associated with diaphoresis but without radiation down the left arm, and it offered "unknown diagnosis."
Yes, using Infermedica API. The monthly free limit exhausted just within 10 minutes of posting on HN, and that's why 403 errors.
I typed in "ear pain", and it didn't come up with any conditions.
EDIT: Anyway, what we really need is a crowdsourced solution, where we can automatically correlate our conditions with the conditions of thousands of other patients, and find treatments that have a high probability of working.
We really need this, because right now, for certain diseases there are hundreds of different possible treatment paths. See e.g. the number of drugs available for "depression". We really need big data, the expertise and experience of our doctors alone is not good enough anymore.
I feel like an Elon Musk type needs to take on healthcare.
Getting error 500 popups on Android after selecting a suggested symptom.
I'm sure UK insurers are looking forward to snooping on this sort of information.
Also: The hypochondria is strong in this one.