by Victor Karamalis

In a time when people are becoming more sick and hospital systems are managing doctors’ precious time with their ill patients, a relevant service is an answer for doctors and patients alike. Currently in Beta, MEDgle is an online service that offers personalized medical search on symptoms and lets potential patients review (and could be shared with a doctor) on a possible diagnosis. As one who has suffered from medical misdiagnosis on a personal level, this service is a solution not just by creating efficiencies in diagnoses for health care providers, but one that can potentially save people experiencing pain from possible bad or missed calls in a diagnosis.

Like most search engines, one can type in one or more symptoms in a field and MEDgle returns a list of possible ailments. There is also a visual interface which breaks down by body type (an ingenious yet effective tool). They do suggest that visiting a doctor and/or a medical facility is the best way to actually assess the actual ailment. The service also locates those doctors that can best diagnose and treat the symptoms and/or root ailments. They have additional features such as adding personalized options relevant to you for your search. To save time from re-inserting personal information, a user can create an account to save his/her settings and it may even track any previous visits. Family histories and other data can be inputted and saved on a secure connection. Ash Damle, MEDgle‘s CEO, has created a convenient streamcast to show how simple MEDgle‘s use is for just about anyone that can read and type.

What I like about MEDgle is that it does not just cater to a particular target audience (physicians can also use the site). All humans will get sick at least once in their lives. This portal transcends languages with its visual interface making it a universal tool that can be used throughout the world. Having an effective database to verify one or more doctors’ limited memories or possible lack of experience will definitely drive down the billions of dollars that are lost due to medical malpractice and litigation costs; these are usually paid by providers and insurance companies. I see no downside to this simple but essential service in today’s high price tag medical market where insurance companies can no longer keep up with the runaway costs of medicine here in the United States and the employee bares a greater economic burden on top of dealing with debilitating circumstances.