Online Symptom Checker Reliability Concerns: Stakeholders and Issues

ITGS PORTFOLIO 2 https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/online-symptom-checker-often-wrong- on-eye-problems-11520362

Criterion A i) The primary stakeholder in the article is the citizens that is using the IT system in their homes and others. Ii) the main social/ethical concern the issue is the reliability of the IT system in producing results for the user.

Criterion B Step by step on how IT system works (online symptom checker) : Step 1. Information of an individual is given and individuals are asked to put a tick on what type of symptom that they are having and their past experience with any diseases Step 2. The system than uses its database to list down information on possible diseases that are related to an individual symptom based on the relativeness of an individual symptom Step 3. the users are then given treatment options where it shows what you should do if u were to have a certain .

Issues caused The reliability of the results given to the users about their diseases through the online symptom checker might not be accurate and cause users to not realise what their actual diseases is leading to even greater danger.

Criterion C Reliability (advantage & disadvantage) How reliable is the system ? The online symptom checker may give a different results to the users compared to an actual doctor. This leads to the inaccuracy on the diagnosis in which leading users to believe that they are actually health or know that they have a different type of diseases and not the actual one.

Standards and protocols The database for the diagnose of disease and the symptom might not be updated to the real life situation in which it may cause people to have a wrong information of a certain disease that they might have. This lead to inaccurate diagnosis which may lead to danger to the users.

Policies There is no policy which states that the users should not trust the site completely which causes the users to think that they do not need to consult a doctor as the cure for the diseases are listen in site database .

Digital citizenship The action of trusting fully on the results from the online symptom checker causes them to be more dependant on the internet itself rather than consulting experts which then may lead them to actually not have their problems solved but even worse that their diseases might not be able to be identified proper or at all if the disease is a new kind of disease.

People and machines The IT system may actually replace the doctors for some users , as people tend to take the easiest way to help themselves. In this case , people might be lazy to go to a hospital and consult a doctor , adding to the fact that sometimes meeting a specialised doctor that is specifically for us is difficult and takes a long time to arrange an appointment with them. Because of this , users resort to only believe in the online symptom checker.

Conclusions. The online symptom checkers provides a lot of benefits and also has their own disadvantage themselves.I believe that with proper care and approach to the IT system , applying policies that would work well with the IT system , the IT system would be used with proper approach.

Criterion D 1.A) The problem stated in criterion C is regarding the reliability of the results given from the online database of the online symptom checker. B)The solution that can be done to ensure is the admins of the site should update their database with the latest news on the information on what the diseases are , new ways of cure , the new causes that lead to a certain disease and others.

2. A) When the database of the online symptom checker is thoroughly updated , users would be able to have their diseases symptom with a more accurate results in which they would know what are actually their problems specifically.This would open their eyes to seek doctors if the results of the online symptom checker is concerning. B) if the users know what actually the diseases that they might be diagnosed with , if the diseases proven to be dangerous , then they would take it seriously and seek the doctor .whereas if they gotten themselves results with a diseases that is to them not very serious , they would not tell the doctors about it.

3) evaluation (+ve) The users would be able to obtain the latest information about the a certain diseases and have their problems diagnosed accurately . Not only that , it will also gives the users the new ways on how certain diseases to be cured.If there is no cure that can be found in the database , this may spark them to meet the doctors and consult the experts on their actual disease. (-ve) Although the online database are thoroughly updated , there are certain cases which the results that are given by the online symptom checker would give a completely different results that contradicts the actual disease that one is having.This may lead people to not able to identify what their problems are if they depend wholly on the site or unless until they consult a doctor.

Future development With the increase in reliability , users now would be able to diagnose their disease accurately. To add it up , with the advancement in technology , in the future users might be able to have their diseases diagnosed based on the input of their blood pressure to the IT system. Not only that , it may develop into which the doctors from around would accept the significance of the online database that is provided.Which then allow doctors to collaborate and help users to identify their diseases just from their homes .

Conclusion As a conclusion , keeping up with the latest information provides the best output for the people around us. For example , the online symptom checker itself. I believe if informations are always up to date . There would be no problem in reaching a successful development of the IT system in the longrun.