Doctors could benefit from turning to the internet when they are struggling to confirm a diagnosis.

That is the finding of new research which found that tapping symptoms into search engine Google can result in an accurate diagnosis.

The study, carried out by a team of researchers from the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Australia, found that in 58 per cent of searches, a good diagnosis was returned.

Presenting the findings on the British Medical Journal website, the researchers concluded that "the use of web based searching may help doctors to diagnose difficult cases".

"As internet access becomes more readily available in outpatient clinics and hospital wards, the web is rapidly becoming an important clinical tool for doctors," the report stated, urging improved IT training for medical staff.

It is thought that medical professionals must call on approximately two million facts in their memory in order to make diagnoses – whereas Google can access three billion health-related articles.

Despite this, concerns have been voiced over the potential for misdiagnosis in relying upon websites. A spokesperson for the Patients Association said: "We would be concerned if they were using websites to diagnose people - what would happen if they gave the patient the wrong information?"

The study involved the use of 26 cases from the New England Journal of Medicine. Certain search terms were identified for each condition and entered into Google by a researcher who did not know the correct diagnosis.

Some 15 searches resulted in the return of diagnoses for the correct condition, which included Creutzfeld-Jakob disease and tuberculosis.

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