(NaturalNews) Nearly everyone with internet access has, at one point or another, used an online diagnostic tool when trying to identify an illness. It's a sure-fire way to scare the heck out of yourself -- almost invariably, you will find that many of your symptoms appear to match those of some rare and fatal disease.

Online self-diagnosis has always been a risky proposition at best, but things may be about to change. A UK-based company has developed a software product that incorporates artificial intelligence to provide accurate medical diagnoses to users online.

The product is called Your.MD, and it's available through Apple's app store and Google Play. Its makers claim that Your.MD does a far better job of interpreting symptoms and diagnosing medical conditions than any of the currently available medical diagnostic tools found on the web.

From a report posted by ExtremeTech.com:

By using artificial intelligence to eliminate unlikely causes of a disease, the company claims to do away with many of the flaws common to the old method of googling ones symptoms. For instance, the more people who report symptoms of the seasonal flu in your town, the more likely it is for Your.MD to report that your high temperature is due to a viral fever rather than a rare form of tropical dysentery. This in itself represents a great leap forward in self-diagnosis.

The company also says that Your.MD offers the solution to another problem associated with online medical resources -- the integrity of the available data. Medical info sites are notorious for posting inaccurate content, while Your.MD compiles its resources from the UK's National Heath Service database.

You can learn more about breaking news on emerging AI systems by visiting AISystems.news, powered by FETCH.news.

Are primary care physicians becoming obsolete?

Needless to say, there are many among the medical establishment who will perceive this type of technology as a direct threat to their livelihoods. The demand for the services of primary care physicians appears to already be shrinking due to the wide proliferation of online medical resources.

An app like Your.MD could prove to be valuable in areas where medical care is scarce or unavailable. Online live medical diagnosis is already common, but systems like this could offer an inexpensive, automated alternative to visiting a physician, whether online or in person.

It remains to be seen how effective a platform such as Your.MD can be in bypassing the need for human diagnosis, but AI systems have shown great potential in applications such as these.

Quite possibly, the future of mainstream medicine belongs to robots, a prospect that appears less frightening than it might, since most American doctors have become unwittingly robotized already by their Big Pharma handlers.

There's not much need for humans in the medical establishment anymore. Robotized surgery, automated patient monitoring systems and advanced diagnostic technology have all reduced the necessity for humans to make diagnoses or initiate treatments.

Many of the recent technological advances in modern medicine have had obvious benefits, and now, with accurate medical information being made widely available, patients will benefit while doctors may slowly become somewhat obsolete.

And with the big drug companies increasingly growing mafia-like with their oligopolistic control of the health industry, doctors have already been systematically dehumanized and turned into pushers of medicines that are often as dangerous as anything one could find on the black market.

So it almost doesn't matter if doctors are replaced by robots and AI systems. As long as those in the medical profession continue to let giant pharmaceutical companies run the show, they shouldn't be considered superior to whatever machines are being developed to take their place.

I know that sounds cynical, but it's not medical technology that we should be afraid of. Big Pharma monopolies are a far greater threat to health and healthcare professions.

Sources:

http://www.extremetech.com

http://www.itechpost.com

http://truthwiki.org/Medical_Fascism