A new study found that digital Covid ‘symptom checkers’ may stop some patients from getting the right treatment for serious illness.

The study, published in the online journal BMJ Health & Care Informatics , suggested that both the US and UK symptom checkers consistently failed to identify the symptoms of severe Covid.

These symptoms may include bacterial pneumonia and sepsis, frequently advising these cases to stay home.

The study comes as the availability and use of symptom checkers have spiked. These checkers are now being used at a national level to pick up Covid infection.

The researchers explained that identifying which patients with Covid require treatment is difficult because the infection can mimic common conditions that rarely require medical attention.

Clinical signs, symptoms

Also, this is because there are no clinical signs or symptoms that reliably predict who will progress to severe disease.

The researchers reasoned that digital symptom checkers combine a series of set questions and pre-determined responses to advise a person on the most appropriate course of action. Hence, they are not as reliable when it comes to severe or complicated illnesses.

India administers over 1.04 crore Covid-19 jabs

For the study, the researchers intended to see if the symptom checkers were able to differentiate mild from severe Covid. They also tried to understand how well the checkers picked up Covid 'mimickers' such as bacterial pneumonia and sepsis in 52 standardised case scenarios.

They found that symptom checkers in Singapore and Japan triaged twice as many cases for direct clinical assessment as the symptom checkers in the US and UK.

Singapore had the highest overall referral rate at 88 per cent; the US had the lowest at 38 per cent.

While Japan’s symptom checker generally performed well, the simulation revealed a potential delay to treatment for very severe sepsis, noted the researchers.

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