To accommodate this, an intermediate layer between the doctor and the care recipient is conceivable: the EHBA (First Aid for App Diagnosis), comparable to a telephone customer service. Many of the questions are handled by a menu to relieve the burden on the employees. Only if the menu does not suffice, the caller is transferred. A possible implementation of this could be an online EHBA platform. Here, app users can find information about the diagnosis and discuss this with other app users or a doctor, for example.
Doctor as a guide
The role of the doctor will change due to the possibility of self-diagnosis. This shifts from making an initial list to data diagnosis to assessing an app diagnosis. The actions to arrive at an initial diagnosis are no longer necessarily performed by the doctor himself (for example, taking and measuring blood values). The facts are already on the table. The added value of the doctor lies in making connections. The diagnosis made by an app is purely a test result. Only a doctor can make connections and, for example, include psychosomatic complaints in the assessment. The doctor acts as a guide to arrive at the definitive diagnosis.
How the application of self-diagnosis apps will find its place in the medical world remains to be seen. The next generation in digital self-care seems logical in any case: self-treatment. An app that makes a diagnosis and then presents a QR code with which you can get the right medicine at the pharmacy. With or without the intervention of a doctor. Not unthinkable, but for the time being the medical world has its hands full with the implementation of digital self-diagnosis.