Are smartphone apps smarter than a doctor?

These days, it seems you can do anything on your smartphone including checking your health. From finding out your melanoma risk to even checking your heart rate. But is trusting those apps better than seeing an actual doctor?

Doctors NewsChannel 21 talked with Wednesday say that applications and websites are good places to provide you with some basic information.

However, it’s easy for an individual to misinterpret the information.

Would you trust a smartphone application to know your health better than a doctor?

“I would test it by trying it, and then going to see a doctor, and see if the results match up or not,” Danielle Taylor said.

“When people try to diagnose themselves, they don’t see the full picture,” Katie Callanan said.”They could actually really get themselves into trouble.”

There are a variety of medical apps out on the market, including the “Mel-App,” which can check your melanoma risk, the “Cardiolinks” app, which tests your heart disease risk, and an “Instant Heart Rate” checker.

“My general principle is not to trust what I see on the Internet,” said Dr. Jim Stone of Mountain Medical Immediate Care.

Stone said he does look online to give him direction and what particular patients are looking at.

“Basic information can be helpful,” Stone said. “But if you are calling up the Internet and are like, ‘Gee, shall I see a doctor?’ — chances are, common sense would indicate, that if I’m looking it up on the Web, you probably ought to go see a physician anyway.”

Stone said it’s easy for people to misinterpret the information, then not seek medical care when they need it, or vice versa.

“And they got a significant or serious illness they miss, or on the other side they trump up something,” Stone said. “And they create this horrible disease that you are going to die tomorrow from.”

Stone said most health problems require more expertise and experience than what a general app can provide.

“Unfortunately, diseases don’t necessarily read the textbooks,” Stone said. “And so they can present in different ways and different patients.”

So can technology replace an actual doctor?

Stone says no, especially when he can have a better idea of what a patient’s general medical history is.

“And can put it all in context,” Stone said. “You either need to worry about something or you don’t, or, ‘This is how we treat you and get you feeling better.'”

Stone said he knows a lot of people who are using the medical apps, because he hears his patients use a lot of buzzwords and self-diagnosis during their checkup.

But in Stone’s view, overall, nothing beats meeting with your doctor.