SYMPTOM CHECKERS CAN HELP WITH UNDERSTANDING BUT CANNOT BE RELIED ON TO MAKE A DIAGNOSIS

Importantly none of the symptom checkers are 100% accurate (some may have an accuracy less than 60%) so importantly these tools are purely designed to provide information and potentially help you understand your condition. These tools do not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Professional medical advice provided by a clinician such as a doctor should always be relied on to make decisions, and information provided here should not delay you in any way getting such advice.

From Openmd
A review of symptom checkers based on article from the British Medical Journal  5 Best Medical Symptom Checkers

Examples of NON NHS symptom checkers

PLEASE NOTE: Some sites are American so recommend you call 911 (this should be 999 for the UK) if you think you have an emergency.

All these sites offer different perspectives and different ways of presenting the information so some may find it informative to compare their symptoms in different sites.

From Isabel Healthcare

• Symptom Checker from Isabel Healthcare Symptom Checker | Isabel – the symptom checker doctors use
• Explanation of the Isabel Healthcare symptom checker from patient info: Symptom Checker at Patient. Check common symptoms online. | Patient

From Symptomate
What concerns you about your health today? Your symptom checker. Medical app for online self-diagnosis.

From WebMD
Symptom Checker with body map Symptom Checker with Body from WebMD – Check Your Medical Symptoms

From Buoy
When something feels off, Buoy it Buoy Health: Check Symptoms & Find the Right Care

Other symptom checkers break down conditions by areas of the body

From the Mayo Clinic
Symptom Checker Symptom Checker – Mayo Clinic

From Family doctor
Symptom Checker Symptom Checker – familydoctor.org

Skin conditions symptom checkers

There are also specialist skin symptom checkers which are covered under “skin conditions symptom checkers” and they also provide detailed information and pictures on skin conditions.

APPS

From ADA
An App highly rated by Openmd
Take care of yourself with Ada Take care of yourself with Ada

Skin SYMPTOM CHECKER

Remember these tools are purely designed to provide information and potentially help you understand your skin condition. These tools do not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Professional medical advice provided by a clinician such as a doctor should always be relied on to make decisions, and information provided here should not delay you in any way getting such advice.

From DermNet NZ
This site is backed up with pictures of each condition which is helpful in understanding possible conditions better. In addition, there is very detailed information on each of the skin conditions considered.
DermDiag : A tool to help you identify a skin condition. DermDiag | DermNet NZ

From Skinsight
This tool gives conditions by location which can be very helpful if you have a rash in one place (e.g., hands). It has excellent pictures for each condition which you can compare.
Insight from experts about treating and caring for your skin. skinsight | expert insights about skin care, skin health, and skin disease

From Familydoctor
Skin Rashes & Other Skin Problems Symptom Checker: Skin Rashes & Other Skin Problems

From the Primary Care Dermatology Society (PCDS) a tool intended for GPs
The Cunliffe (TP) General Dermatology Diagnostic Tool The Cunliffe (TP) General Dermatology Diagnostic Tool

From the British Skin Foundation
Explore our A-Z of skin. British Skin Foundation – Know your skin inside out

GENERAL UK WEBSITES

This section considers some of the more well known UK websites providing general information on health and wellbeing available. Some excellent websites not included on this page focus just on one health topic (e.g. chest and lung condition and can be found under that particular health topic on this website.

The NHS website – NHS a reputable website which has been used extensively on this website. This has been well written for patients, providing simple information which is written in a plain way avoiding technical words, and not over detailed. However, it does not provide much localised information on local services.

NHS inform – Scottish health information you can trust | NHS inform NHS inform is Scotland’s national health information service. This is similar to NHS choices in many ways but a different presentation of similar information can help understanding.

Symptom Checker, Health Information and Medicines Guide | Patient Patient info is an excellent site covering most common conditions. The articles provide more detail than the NHS website or NHS inform. Also, the articles have often been written by GPs, so the articles are targeted at questions often asked by patients. However, it does not provide much localised information on local services.

CKS | NICE  From the National institute for health and care excellence (NICE) providing primary care practitioners (GPs, practice nurses and other clinicians) with a readily accessible summary of the current evidence base and practical guidance on best practice. This is a very important site for clinicians but it can be very helpful to share these guidelines with patients to help in the understanding of the latest best evidence available and facilitate the patient in choosing their preferred option.

Healthtalk is site where people have shared their experience of living with different conditions. “Healthtalk.org contains hundreds of real people’s stories. These stories are collected by academic researchers who interview people in their own homes, using their own words. We help millions of people each year to feel better prepared and informed and less alone in what they are going through.”

NetDoctor: Health Advice, Nutrition Tips, Trusted Medical Information is a site written for patients including a focus on health living and life style information. “Over 250 of the UK’s and Europe’s leading doctors and health professionals write, edit and update the contents of NetDoctor.co.uk. In addition to creating written content for the patient these same health professionals respond to users questions and concerns regarding general health concerns.” Though there is significant advertising they suggest “Our editorial independence and reliance on professional advice is our single most important asset. There is a clear distinction between the editorial and business staff. As a matter of policy our doctors, writers and editors are not allowed to be influenced or answerable to our sponsors or advertisers.”

ON MENTAL HEALTH

Some well known sites include

• Mental Health | Royal College of Psychiatrists has a section with good reputable mental information.
• Psychology Today UK: Health, Help, Happiness + Find Counselling UK Psychology Today is one of the world’s largest mental health and behavioral science destinations online. Though it advertises private counselors in UK the “Get Help” section provides unbiased advice on mental health topics. There is also information on wellbeing topics such as a section on happiness which are thought provoking but also quite easy for us all to follow.

ON HEALTH NEWS

Health – BBC News independent and unbiased news on health from the BBC including information on the NHS and what is happening in your area backed up with evidence (data) rather than purely opinion.

LINKS TO OTHER SUPPORT WEBSITES

From Helplines partnership
Find a helpline “Our Find a Helpline directory lists approved members of Helplines Partnership providing support via various channels.” Helplines Partnership

AMERICAN AND OTHER NON-UK BASED WEBSITES

General websites

National Institutes of Health (NIH) | Turning Discovery Into Health The National Institute of Health (NIH) is a United States Government Health Agency dealing with Public Health and Research so this is a very reputable website. Though their focus is on research they provide a huge range of good information.

• Their “Medline plus health info “ MedlinePlus – Health Information from the National Library of Medicine provides extensive information on common health conditions, drugs, medical tests and a medical dictionary. They even include a section on healthy recipes.
• The wellness toolkit Your Healthiest Self: Wellness Toolkits | National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides wide ranging advice on improving your health in general.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a National American organisation focused on disease prevention. For long-term conditions such as diabetes and heart disease it provides well-presented information on prevention and though the support is all focused in the U.S.A, it can help reinforce similar messages found on UK websites.

Healthline: Medical information and health advice you can trust. This is a very popular website in the United States which covers numerous health items. For each article they provide details of who has written the article and who has reviewed the article allowing you to make some judgement on the source. They also have articles written by patients which are very insightful about their health experiences, giving their experience on how they have moved forward (e.g., Type 2 Diabetes). The section on Nutrition will give you a feel for the range of perspectives and ideas on how you could embed life style changes into your life in different ways.

Mayo Clinic – Mayo Clinic They are an organisation in the healthcare business in the United States but provide extensive health information on conditions, drugs and tests (see under “Health information”).

WebMD – Better information. Better health. Is an American online publisher on health and wellbeing covering a vast amount of information. The articles are written by health professionals, experts, editorial professionals and contributors with a specialty license. There has been some criticism (detailed on Wikipedia) “for biasing readers toward drugs that are sold by the site’s pharmaceutical sponsors, even when they are unnecessary” or “encouraging hypochondria and for promoting treatments for which evidence of safety and effectiveness is weak or non-existent, such as green coffee supplements for weight loss.” Setting aside this criticism there is some good information on the website including a positive approach to healthy living.

Drugs.com | Prescription Drug Information, Interactions & Side Effects is an excellent drugs data base which is regularly updated. From About us: “Drugs.com is the largest, most widely visited, independent medicine information website available on the Internet. Our aim is to be the Internet’s most trusted resource for drug and related health information. We will achieve this aim by presenting independent, objective, comprehensive and up-to-date information in a clear and concise format for both consumers and healthcare professionals.”
UK Drug Database | Drugs.com The Drugs.com UK Database contains drug information on over 1,500 medications distributed within the United Kingdom.

Everyday Health: Trusted Medical Information, Expert Health Advice, News, Tools, and Resources | Everyday Health Good articles with links at the bottom of each topic to other website information (See under “Resources we love”) focusing on the topic. Overall, this provides significant detailed information on each health condition.

Trusted Health Education from Family Physicians | familydoctor.org Trusted medical advice from the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Health Home | Johns Hopkins Medicine. John’s Hopkins medical school is one of the top medical schools in the U.S.A and as such the information is considered reputable.

Verywell Health – Know More. Feel Better. Reputable website with articles reviewed by a “team of 100 board-certified physicians”. Some good information for example on conditions such as Type 2 diabetes and diet Type 2 Diabetes Diet or explaining what precancerous cell mean What It Means If You Have Precancerous Cells

MedicineNet – Health and Medical Information Produced by Doctors MedicineNet is an online, healthcare media publishing company. (“Nationally recognized, doctor-produced by a network of more than 70 U.S. board-certified physicians”). If one ignores the sponsored adverts then some may like the short style of their articles with bullet points or short paragraphs broken up with pictures.

Children and young people websites

Nemours KidsHealth – the Web’s most visited site about children’s health has information for parents, younger children and teenagers. As an American site some of the services and drugs are not replicated in the UK.

Local data bases

From Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
Many of the websites listed on this site have already been included on the appropriate pages on Bucks Health Hub but as this data base is updated you may find other information of interest.

• Library services: Health information Home – Health Information – LibGuides at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
• Welcome to libguides Home – Homepage – LibGuides at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Leaflets

From Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Leaflets Publications – Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust

From the Self Care Forum
Fact sheets Fact Sheets – Self Care Forum