How Symptom Checkers Help Improve Patient Engagement

At Isabel Healthcare we are constantly striving to help improve the world of diagnosis through our tools, our own research and content, and our encouragement of independent studies into the diagnostic process. In 2012, we released a free symptom checker tool that was based on our professional system, the Isabel Symptom Checker. This enables patients to research their symptoms and conditions using validated resources, to help doctors and patients alike to understand and interpret their symptoms. In recent years, the discussion around, and push for, better patient engagement, means institutions are searching for effective ways to engage with the patients they treat. We believe a symptom checker is a brilliant way to engage patients in their own health.

Enabling Patient Engagement with a Symptom Checker

We have written a new white paper to outline our thoughts and findings on patient engagement and the use of symptom checker and/or care direction tools. We discuss the research, ideas and concepts behind patients using symptom checkers, and why we think they're a great tool that should be utilised by institutions. Patients are going to research their own health whether we help them or not, as suggested by research at Pew, which found that the average consumer spends 52 hours a year looking for health information on the internet. For this reason, providing your patients with medically sound, validated tools to help them with their research will not only improve the quality of their research, but also open up a healthy discussion between patient and doctor, therefore improving patient engagement.

A Guide to Symptom Checkers

We also wanted to give people a guide on how best to find a symptom checker that will work for you and your institution, and help foster good relationships between patient, medical professional, and institution. In our new white paper we reveal the 4 main types of system architecture behind symptom checkers, and the advantages and disadvantages of all of these. We also discuss triage and care direction tools, and list some of the top symptom checkers out there for you to test. We've even included a pull out poster of the questions we suggest you ask of a symptom checker when assessing its capabilities.

The Isabel Symptom Checker

Finally, we outline the features and the system behind the Isabel Symptom Checker, including its large scaling up potential with our APIs and integration products. We have included case studies of institutions and websites currently using the Isabel Symptom Checker system, as well as patient testimonials explaining why they love using the tool to research their own health.

You can download the white paper now by selecting the button below. We hope you enjoy reading it and find it useful. We'd love to hear what you think about it, by either commenting on this blogpost or contacting us!