This sort of thing already exists. It is not governed by patients but medical doctors and veterinarians. They are symptom based search engines that help doctors narrow down possible diagnoses. Medical professionals even have their own version of wikipedia for info and treatments for various diseases that are updated by their peers to keep up with new research findings.

There are also several disease based social networking sites these days (e.g. tudiabetes.com) that are driven by the patient community.

Billions of people on planet earth, a few websites to help. There has to be room for another with a different twist.

Don't chase competition, Create it!

Might be more interesting than the very dry medical sites that are on offer at the moment.

Ok, I'm going to give it an extra star for pushing the crowd sourcing envelope.
Crowdsourced epidemiology.

Self-report of signs can be problematic. Do you have a fever or do you "feel" hot?

Since most cures require a doctors prescription, you would still need to see a doctor, who would be required to diagnosed you again. Why not just skip the web site and go see a doctor?

Sorting out what causes what is very difficult. A quick web search on "diseases with similar symptoms" revealed this webpage
http://www.adventist...icine/33/000406.html
It lists the symptoms of Crohn's Disease with other diseases that cause the same symptoms. Do you really think that people are going to be able to objectively sort this out to actually figure out what they have at home on your website?

You can put all the disclaimers on the website you want, but if you are doing something you are not supposed to do that wont help you. And forget the legal part, we are going to feel bad when somebody gets sicker or dies because we were trying to figure out their disease on a website when the doctor could have cured them.

I'm not saying this is a bad idea. Just a very ambitious idea that has some BIG challenges to overcome.

Good luck.

Lars

Thanks Lars.

Why not have the doctor diagnose it? My relative has been to countless doctors, read all there is on the existing websites, all to no avail. Many just say it's in there head. Some doctors guess it's the infamous fibromyalgia - of which there is no known cure. So...collaborate with others that share the same symptoms and come up with a possible solution. Maybe even a cure. Kind of like parrallel human computing (hey, did I just come up with the next new buzz phrase?)

Again, a major feature is the spreadsheet like profile. Various profiles could then be overlaid on one another showing common symptoms between 2 or more profiles. This could be a graphical 3D representation of each profile showing the most common symptoms among them as larger hotspot areas and the non-common symptoms as smaller darker areas. The ability to rotate this "cube" in realtime 3D to show these common areas is key.

Eye candy and a new way to view symptoms and the way those profiles relate to one another. No more boring text charts. A new never before seen 3D view of connected symptoms directly from those WITH the symptoms. Worldwide.

David

I think this would be problematic if it had ONLY community input. It may work better if you had a panel of actual doctors that can contribute. I'd imagine the data would be quite valuable though; kind of like the other idea of CrowdSourcing mobile application testing.

Doctors could contribute. If that is what is needed to make the site more valuable then the more contributors the merrier. I just think that the contributions from the people suffering would give the people looking for answers a Warm Fuzzy feeling, knowing they are connecting with and seeing other peoples symptoms, actually entered by those people. Not just from cold hearted doctors with no emotional connection.

I really think the idea of seeing your symptom profile in a Purely Graphical representation is the real twist. Each slice that makes up this view is a personal profile. Then all of the personal profiles that have a similarity (by symptoms, lifestyle, race, etc...you choose how to filter) are stacked on top of one another creating a 3D symptom view. I need to create a drawing to show this better.

It seems like sooner or later a disease or symptom graphical signature would be created based on all the input.

If anyone with better programming skills than I want's to help on this join in.

symptoms.webmd.com

Mayeb it's because I'm a Medical Student, but I don't like people without any studies to say if you should or not take pills. Another thing is if you are trying to publish medical info about each disease, just for giving it to the patients, because sometimes they dont' know what's their disease about.

I guess what I'm thinking about is finding the common thread that particular sufferers have. Being able to filter by various things such as age, smoker/non-smoker, diabetic, high blood pressure, headaches, joint pain, etc....and see the results of thousands of people in a 3D Cube, each side revealing what the various common symptoms/reliefs are.

http://www.techcrunc...cial-network-imedix/

i like your idea!

I havent check the link listed above but,

there are serious ethical issues and standards in health diagnosis specially trying to conclude something just by written or collective manifestations from the crowds.
Prescribing a possible solution is a dangerous precedent for non medicals practicioners. Disease and other illness is not simple matrix of ready answers from table of data. A fever alone means hundred others of viral and disease manifestations from specific causing pathogens.

PLease review your idea again and do try some legal advise too.

Thanks diMa,

A point I need to make clear is that no one will be prescribing or diagnosing your health issues. YOU will look at the collected data in visual form and make your on conclusions. YOU will decide what to do next. Maybe take your info to a doctor and ask them to review it. My friend has talked to many doctors and never found an answer. Sometimes you just have to help yourself. This site will help you do that.

The data is there, what you do with it is up to you.

The http://www.techcrunc...cial-network-imedix/ site is similar but still has no VISUAL view. Picture the 3D cube. The individual profiles (in a graphical matrix overlayed on one another) stacked up to form this cube. Now rotate this cube in any way to see the common threads throughout. That is the biggest difference. Useful, intriguing eye candy.

If your doctor only treats the symptoms without looking for any underlying cause, you need a new doctor...

Of course that doesn't take away from this idea - if I was ill I'd be interested in anything that aimed to explain my condition to me and involve me in the diagnosis/prognosis procedure.

Incidentally, the correct word for the 'symptom set' or 'symptom profile' you describe (if I understand them correctly at least) is 'syndrome' - a collection of symptoms and signs occurring together that indicate a particular disease or health problem.

Pretty good idea, is this what you mean? http://www.patientslikeme.com