Diagnosaurus

One of the most unique of the PDA software programs that we have examined this semester in the PDA course is the one called Diagnosaurus. This very simple program has some fairly valuable information in it. The basic premise behind this program is to match a symptom with a possible diagnosis. The online version consists of a very easy-to-use program. You can browse by symptom or disease and then click on whichever one you are looking for. If you click on a symptom, a list of disease pops up. That list of diseases is all of the possible diseases that are associated with that particular symptom. If you select a disease instead of a symptom, the exact opposite occurs--a list of symptoms pops up that are associated with the disease. A third browsing option is to browse by organ system. Clicking on one of them brings up a list of all associated symptoms and diseases. Diagnosaurus does not include any additional information, so a different database would be needed for that, but it does give a quick overview which could be ideal for a doctor who needs a quick answer.