Summary

healthdirect’s online Symptom Checker guides you to the appropriate healthcare action: if you need to see a doctor or go to your nearest hospital or emergency department. It helps you understand symptoms and possible signs of illness, causes and complications.

Watch the related video about healthdirect Symptom Checker >>

Transcript

Doctor Trina Gregory:

The purpose of healthdirect Symptom Checker is to provide people with a different access point into the health system.

Maureen Robinson:

Developed in collaboration with NHS direct in the UK and a panel of clinicians who come from across Australia and who bring expertise in all sorts of areas of Health and Medicine.

Doctor Trina Gregory:

It’s not a diagnostic tool but there’s a lot of health information and self care information to direct people to safe and appropriate self care if they don’t need face to face care at that time.

Doctor Alan Giles:

It’s very important that people aren’t looking to diagnose their own illnesses. They’re using the complex of their symptoms to be appropriately triaged to a facility which can then do that diagnose for them.

Doctor Jean Challiner:

The other technology piece really is, is the ability to link the symptom check to other pieces of health information where the consumer might want more information about a particular topic to actually read for themselves. I think there’s very much a thirst for knowledge amongst consumers and this is a way to provide them with credible information.

Doctor Trina Gregory:

We will aim to improve health literacy, which I think is very important because anyone with a symptom deserves to know what they can do to make it better to explain the symptom.

Ian Manovel

Patients often come into the pharmacy with healthcare enquiries and they’re not sure what to do and where to turn to next. It might be that they should have turned to the doctor or some other resource.

Danny Mcgennisken:

It’s an intelligent way to assist in managing the increasing demand that the health sector is more broadly facing.