EasyDiagnosis - a cure for the medical web site woes?

Millions of people who daily visit the Internet in search of information about their complaints and conditions, finally have a new interactive resource that helps them bypass vast amounts of irrelevant medical news and information offered by traditional medical web sites. EasyDiagnosis.com uses proprietary decision support software, a form of artificial intelligence, that provides consumers with an ordered list of likely diagnoses, given a specific symptom. The site is the brainchild of physician/author, Dr. Martin Sturman, who has brought together leading medical experts to work alongside computer scientists to develop proprietary software systems. Heading the company's R & D technical team is Dr. Manuel Perez, Professor of Mathematics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

CEO of Media, Pennsylvania-based Mathemedics, Inc., Dr. Sturman recognized the need for such a responsive web alternative four years ago. EasyDiagnosis reverses the classical approach of attempting to match a list of diseases with the patient complaint rather than invoking the most likely diagnoses based on the patient's symptom. By putting people first, matching their complaints and findings to conditions, EasyDiagnosis focuses on clinical symptoms rather than endless disease possibilities.

"As doctors, we instinctively know that in listening to our patients' symptoms we should be ruling in diagnoses rather than ruling them out, yet at the same time we worry about the rare diagnosis rather than the most likely," Dr. Sturman states. " With this new software our visitors can learn how their complaints drive the diagnostic process and at the same time appreciate that extensive testing is not always the best route to a diagnosis. He believes "technological infatuation results in widespread failure to ask the patient where it hurts before embarking on search and destroy diagnostic missions."

The EasyDiagnosis.com site is in early stages of construction offering diagnostic modules for three principal complaints and one condition that account for a significant number of physician and emergency room visits. Upon conclusion of the site, EasyDiagnosis suite of programs will estimate probabilities of various diagnoses based on over 35 common complaints comprising the majority of dominant symptoms that doctors hear daily from their patients.

The company's VP Marketing, Brian Sloman pointed out: "The financial crisis in health care points to a growing need for the public to acquire more knowledge, have greater control over vital decisions and use an inexpensive medical resource. No technology can ever take the place of the physician, but people today demand and deserve ready access to expert knowledge."

Jack Sizer, M.D., MBA, VP of MatheMedics since 1997, and who is C.E.O. of Optimal Health Group, a medical management company "Our work is under constant trial, and I'm pleased that our responses are passing the toughest scrutiny from colleagues in the medical profession." He also noted that Early results from operational trials by a managed care plan of the MatheMedics physician decision support software has been very positive .

To run the diagnostic modules, the user simply enters his or her age, sex and principal complaint then answers a series of directed questions before clicking through to 'Check Diagnosis'. They receive a short list of the most probable diagnoses in order of their likelihood, "but we do not intend to make patients their own physicians. On the contrary, we encourage visitors to regard the program output as a first step in finding important information about their complaint, information not easily available on the Internet. This can be invaluable when consulting their doctor," added Mr. Sloman. Dr. Sturman pointed out: "What we've achieved is an interactive, web-based version of a preliminary doctor-patient encounter, something available immediately in a simple format to help with medical complaints from which a person is suffering at that very moment." He added: "No longer does the confused Internet user have to search through the intimidating babel of information and disease descriptions to see if their symptoms match a condition. EasyDiagnosis.com gives a likely diagnosis offering both comfort or a call to action for millions."

EasyDiagnosis.com is a sister site to Mathemedics.com, which also develops decision support software to assist physician networks, and hospital groups throughout the managed care industry.

For further information contact:
Brian Sloman, VP sloman@easydiagnosis.com