Developing Internet applications

It is enough to type “online diagnostics” into the search engine bar to get a long list of developments of Internet applications that are supposed to help the user determine his disease. However, nowhere will you find rave reviews that a particular site has solved a person’s problem. Why? Below we’ll look at the main difficulties of trying to create an online diagnostician.

The issue of motivation

From the diagnosticians found online, we can conclude that few developers have sought to solve the user’s real problems. The goal of most such apps is to attract traffic or monetize it. There are also resources developed for the purpose of PR for a particular clinic.
The usefulness of online applications of a medical nature is determined primarily by whether the program has answered the user’s questions: what is wrong with them, which doctor to contact, what tests they will have to undergo and how dangerous the situation is. Suppose, for example, an online diagnostician determined by the localization of a headache that you have twenty-five percent probability of arterial hypertension, and ten percent – migraine without aura. Does that make you feel better? And this is a very real algorithm for one of the best diagnosticians in Runet.
The main problem with online diagnosticians is that the developers very rarely ask what user’s problem their project solves. They are not interested, and hypochondriacs will always provide the portal with traffic. And it does not matter that by clicking on the links, they find only useless toys. After all, only a doctor can adequately diagnose and treat, which means there is no need to try.

At the same time, in order to create something that can be useful, the following questions must be answered:

• How can the patient be helped before seeing a doctor?
• How can you help when a doctor’s consultation is unavailable?
• Why can help not be available?

This information is the starting point to start thinking through the project.

“Simplicity is worse than theft.”

The desire to make an app simple is understandable: the less the user will click and wrinkle his forehead trying to determine, for example, the nature of a rash, the better. This is why the main problem with apps is that they try to diagnose one or two symptoms. A doctor, on the other hand, when making a diagnosis, is working with a set of signs. And the signs themselves, in his mind, have many gradations. There is no such thing as just pain or just a rash. The discharge has a source, a color, a consistency, a smell.

It is impossible to create a really working product by trying to translate an electronic medical reference book into an interactive form. There is no other way to think through a diagnostic algorithm than to enlist the help of a doctor – someone who knows how to do it. And simplicity will have to be sacrificed. It can only be achieved at the interface level.

When does an app help?

Now back to the question of usefulness. Of course, a doctor is indispensable in diagnosing and prescribing treatment. But a person who is sick faces more than just a “how to treat” problem. Before seeing a doctor, the patient needs to relieve the underlying symptoms somehow. And a selection of innocuous, but relieving medications won’t hurt. For example, with joint pain, a tip to use ibuprofen instead of analgin will be appropriate.
First-aid instructions also come in handy, especially when it comes to problems that are not the most common. Emergency aid for heart attacks or strokes is not covered in television programs and is rarely written about in brochures in clinics. Apps also help when a person is in doubt. Should I call an ambulance or can I just sit it out? Which doctor should I make an appointment with? Even such seemingly elementary information as the telephone number of the ambulance is sometimes difficult to find out, depending on the region and mobile operator.
An Internet application that gives maximum answers to the questions of a person who feels ill will be a success. But, as is already clear from all of the above, it will require considerable investment.

Why do it

Initial Internet diagnostics are useful for clinics that attract patients via the Internet. If a visitor receives answers to any questions prior to seeing a specialist, he will be more trusting of those who enlightened him. But private medicine, as a rule, is not ready to allocate the budget required to create a really useful Internet application with a multi-step diagnostic algorithm and professional recommendations.
At the same time, a high-quality Internet application for self-diagnosis will also be quite in demand among ordinary users, because healthy lifestyles and body condition monitoring are becoming a widespread trend.