Where can I seek medical advice online?
Where can I seek medical advice online?
Recently, I found myself questioning the accuracy of a diagnosis provided by a doctor I visited. Surprisingly, an AI seemed to offer a more insightful assessment. However, I understand the importance of not solely relying on AI-generated information. With that in mind, I'm eager to discover a reputable online platform where I can seek medical advice. Ideally, I hope to find a community where I can obtain multiple opinions to make a more informed decision about my health. If anyone could recommend such a site, I would greatly appreciate it.
Replace the word AI with "fancy autocomplete" and see how comfortable you feel with its diagnosis.
That's effectively what you've done. How see another doctor for a second opinion if you're concerned; this isn't something to leave to the internet.
Comparing current LLMs with autocomplete is stupid. An autocomplete can't pass law or biology exams in the 90th percentile like GTP-4 can.
Actually, by your reasoning, an autocomplete can pass law or biology exams because that's all that GPT is. It's a very fancy autocomplete, but it doesn't know anything. It is not an AGI. It is a limited tool designed to generate text in response to a prompt: a very fancy autocomplete, but an autocomplete nonetheless.
The ICD is the reference for diagnosis criteria. So you can check and verify diagnosis for a personal assessment there.
If you question a doctors assessment, you should get a second doctor's opinion.
Dunno where you live, but in Germany you have a right to a second opinion, and for stuff like operations the Krankenkasse will even recommend getting them. They, at least mine, also have online doctor services.
There is no substitute for a real doctor. You can get a second opinion from someone else. And should.
That said I think mayoclinic.org is fairly reliable source for information.
If it is something that can be remotely diagnosed, you might try Teledoc.com.
I second this. AI does not have the true depth of understanding or the heuristic experience that a physician does, and it doesn't know what questions to ask in the first place. There are a number of conditions that can only be caught and diagnosed if the correct questions are asked, and you can't rely on just feeding a machine all the symptoms you have because some of them may not be related to the problem at hand. Actually going to a physician and getting a physical exam and any lab work they might order is immensely valuable for making an accurate diagnosis.
I've never tried it, but I think Amazon now has the ability to do virtual medical visits in some places.
Maybe that could work as a second opinion?
AI isn't actually doing a diagnosis. It's just trying to predict what to say based on what other people have said online. Often the AI generated content/answers are just wrong. Maybe an AI properly trained on symptoms could give accurate results but that isn't really what is happening with most of these AI models.
The AI answer will sound more detailed and involve more fluff. A doctor will often be shorter on details but just because they don't have time for the fluff. Even doctors think AI answers sound better due to the fluff. It doesn't mean the AI is actually better or something you can trust.