The inaccessibility of regular healthcare in most countries of the world is alarming. The day isn’t far away when patients will have to take out a loan to go get checked up by a doctor!
Further, the wait of weeks before we receive an appointment is also concerning. Thankfully, this is somewhat mitigated by the medicinal help we receive through online healthcare services like doorstep delivery, caregiving assistance, etc.
One such amazing service is the Symptom Checker Software. Symptom Checkers like the Symptomate promise to make diagnosis instant and accessible by providing online assistance. Qualified AI algorithms included in this task have precise and mathematical knowledge of medicinal concepts and terminologies.
What Are Symptom Checker Apps?
If you have been feeling a little under the weather recently but aren’t sure if it is worth a visit to the doctor, you can simply take 15 minutes from your busy schedule to list out your issues on a Symptom Checker app instead.
Symptom Checker Apps are high-quality medical assistance software that takes information from users about any recent health issues and integrates this information to come to a list of possible conclusions that can explain why a user is feeling the way they are!
These days, such apps are powered by advanced AI technology which makes them capable of talking to users as if they are real people. They ask intelligent questions and use high-functioning algorithms to determine the nature and intensity of your health problem!
Many of these are even suited to take into account the many cultural differences, gender, and age paradigms as well as the role of stress and unhealthy lifestyle in the propagation of a particular disease.
Many symptom checkers also include collaboration from real-life Health Care professionals – does Symptomate do that, and what are its limitations if any? Let us find out.
Symptomate: Worthwhile Transformation To The World Of Telehealth?
This industry-changing medical app was launched in 2012 by Infermedica. Initially, this was a revolutionary step against a general search on search engines like Google – this is because Symptomate could provide personalized diagnosis instead of a general solution.
Today, Symptomate includes a chatbot, a mobile service, and an interactive questionnaire built for each user individually. It is being used by more than 3 million people globally and is known to be one of the most accessible and easy-to-use apps out there today. It is definitely an app that has changed the face of medicine for millions of people across the world.
How Does Symptomate Work?
The process starts with an interview where the AI chatbot holds a conversation about your health. Given below is the complete process:
- Select the risk factors that might be contributing to your health.
- Select the initials that best describe your situation from a list of more than 100 possible experiences. You can also add your symptoms.
- Fill out a short questionnaire generated just for you by Symptomate.
- Wait a couple of minutes Symptomate analyzes the results. It will list out your next course of action (self-care or visiting a doctor?), any possible conditions you might have, any tests you might need to do, how to take care of yourself at the moment, etc.
Salient Features: What To Expect From Symptomate?
The features that make Symptomate what it is are both standard as well as unique. Here’s what to expect:
- A catalog of more than 100 symptoms from which you can choose whatever you are feeling. Distinctions between the range and intensity of symptoms are made clear. For example, specific distinctions for ‘stomach pain’ can include ‘stomach pain after eating’ or ‘stomach pain in the morning’ etc.
- A comprehensive body model that you can use as a map to point out the area that is causing problems.
- Depending on your experience, the AI asks several specific questions. Many of these involved simple exercises to help find out how your body is reacting while performing a certain behavior.
- The symptom checker provides a scale of 1 to 10 on which you can read the intensity of your issues
- Provides an additional option to connect with a real-life medical professional including general practitioners to specialists like cardiologists and gynecologists.
- Provides a list of more than one possible condition.
- Each condition is elaborated using definitions, causes, and possible care methods that can provide relief.
- Includes multiple solutions from which patients can choose a possible course of action that benefits them the most.
Pros and Cons of Choosing Symptomate
One of the biggest incentives for using Symptomate is the fact that it is being updated almost continuously. The latest major research in all medical fields is being regularly updated on Symptomate.
Pros
- Suitable for use in 140 different countries.
- Includes voice assistance that can be synced with Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, and Amazon Alexa.
- Can differentiate between 1500 symptoms and 600 different conditions.
- Supports 10 languages – English, Spanish, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Brazilian, Portuguese, Russian, Polish and Slovak.
- A certified Class I Medical Device complying with EU’s 93/68/EEC directives.
- Apart from a cool and attractive user interface, it promises enhanced compatibility with all devices including Android, iOS, and Windows.
Cons
- Not well suited to provide help in emergency conditions.
- Limited expertise in tracking and integrating past medical history into present health problems.
- Do not set notifications and reminders for regular medication, diet, or exercise.
- Does not schedule appointments with real-life doctors on an on-app basis.
- Yet to integrate Natural Language Processing in German and Spanish, hence does not give the best results for speakers of these languages.
- According to recent research, Symptomate has an accuracy of 61.5% in condition-suggestion coverage, which though impressive is lesser than Ada, Mediktor, Your.MD and WebMD. It has a top three suggestion accuracy of 27.5%, again lesser than that of Ada, Mediktor, Buoy, and WebMD.
The Final Verdict
Symptomate can easily be counted as one of the best Symptom Checker Apps available today. However, there are many areas where the lack of specialization interferes with good-quality diagnosis. Even though it is a solution-checking platform,
Symptomate can benefit from incorporating more emergency solutions on its platform. Similarly, being able to incorporate creative mental health solutions that can be directly accessed through the app can set it apart from other checkers.
Many competitors like Ada and Mediktor have started to gear content towards holistic medicine which has improved their efficiency in symptom checking.
