Houston doctor creates impressively accurate symptom checker app

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Say you're not feeling well, but can't get to the doctor. If you're like a third of adults in the US, you head to the Internet to self-diagnose yourself and feel better. The problem is some of that information is wrong. So, a Houston doctor turned to technology to create an accurate symptom checker that's now gaining national attention.

When Diane Beasley's youngest child started coughing, she picked up her phone. But not to call her doctor. To answer a series of questions on an app called DocResponse.

"The end diagnosis was bronchitis with the recommendation you go see your primary care physician," she said.

She did. He got medicine and got better. Without the app, Beasley admits she would have waited.

"So it saved three or four days of this poor kid suffering for nothing," she said.

That's one of the goals of this new technology, according to Dr. Tarec Fahl, the Houston doctor who created it. But there's a more pressing reason.

"What we're trying to do is restrict or decrease the number of unnecessary visits to the er or a doctor's office," Dr. Fahl said.

The idea came when Dr. Fahl noticed patients heading to the Internet before heading to his office. But most of them were getting it all wrong.

Accuracy and algorithims is what makes DocResponse different. A study this july by Harvard Medical School found it listed "the correct diagnosis first" 150 percent more often than WebMD and iTriage. And it was 300 percent more often than the Mayo Clinic's symptom checker.

"Are we 100 percent accurate? No. Nor are physicians," Dr. Fahl said.

And this certainly doesn't take the place of physicians.

"But we are giving useful and accurate information for the user," he said.

That's any user. The hope is fellow physicians, especially those without specialized training, will even use DocResponse in their offices.

"This is developed by sub-specialists who can give more knowledge to these primary care doctors," Dr. Fahl said.

And as emergency rooms overflow with more than 136 million visitors per year, health care technology like this is necessary.

"We'll continue to make strides to make a better product and in the end, really change health care, to push toward automation," Dr. Fahl said.

Beasley is a fan of the app.

"If it's just a cold, just a cough, just allergies, you can treat that over the counter. You're saving the time of going to the doctor, you're saving the money of the co-pay. That to me is more than just money, it's quality of life," she said.