Dr. Google!

Web-based search engines such as Google are becoming the latest tools in clinical medicine. Hangwi Tang of the Brisbane, Australia-based Princess Alexandra Hospital wrote in a study on British Medical Journal's Web site. Doctors are increasingly Googling for a diagnosis. Google gives users access to more than 3 billion articles on the Internet, according to Tang.

When a 16-year-old patient of Tang's showed up with a blood clot, Tang told his parents that the cause of the condition was uncertain. However, the patients father suggest that it was Paget-von Schroetter syndrome. The father Googled the symptoms, which include pain and circulation problems in the arms and shoulders, into the search engine and arrived at the correct diagnosis, the Tang said.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine last year, doctors Google three out of five difficult to diagnose symptoms. In 58 percent of the cases, the researchers said doctors we able to locate and specific diagnostic information.