What is it?
Diagnostic software is used by doctors everywhere in order find diseases that a patient might have and in the laboratory, it helps researchers to distinguish a precancerous cell from a pap smear or a lump in breast tissue.

Diagnostic programs have been around since the 1950s, but early program were not use widely due to their poor accuracy and lack of reliability, they were often run on bulky mainframes, and required a doctor to double check the data. Yet as the advance in technology continues, engineers have put together a more accurate and convenient programs that allows physician to enters symptoms, test results and medical history into the program which then suggests a list of possible diagnoses. The hardware had dramatically shrunk in size of a desktop, computer memory has vastly expanded, and modems or network cables can easily link them together.

IT System:
Expert system - a software system that support decision by providing managers with access to computerized expert knowledge based on a knowledge-based system.

Examples:
NxOpinion
Created by Dr. Joel C. Robertson and Microsoft
Used to distribute it to doctors and medical organizations in impoverishing and developing regions, and rural clinics.
Designed for Tablet PC and desktop computer, it prompts physician to enter detail about patient's condition and it suggests possible aliments and other evidence until the doctor is confident that he or she has pinpointed the most likely diagnosis and identified a viable treatment option.
A doctor would have to input the patient symptoms and then the NxOpinion comes up with possible diseases that the patient could have.


Advantage:
Save time
More accurate

Disadvantage:
Cannot judge the treatment to match the patient
Does not consider personal issue about the patient

Social/Ethical Issues:
Reliability/Accuracy
How specific is the software to a particular patient? Does it provide general information on a condition, or does it manipulate specific data from a specific patient to develop a specific treatment plan?

Is the software intended for critical use, such as pointing out imminent danger in an intensive care unit, or for a less crucial purpose, such as to store diagnostic images such as CT scans?

Is the user aware of the limitations of the program, and whether any of its recommendations depart from conventional medical practice?

How quickly do the software's recommendations need to be implemented? For instance, with an electrocardiogram program, will it recommend defibrillation at the appropriate time, or will it merely point out that a particular rhythm should be checked for abnormalities?

Globalization and Cultural Diveristy
The availability of the software for developing countries so they can easily diagnose the disease without a big staffs helping.

Do we need more doctors?
If we have the diagnostic software which can diagnostic the patient diseases by inputting the symptoms, then is there still a large need for more doctors?
YES!
If the patient has only one disease, then there is a good chance that the diagnostic software can come up with the correct diagnosis. But if there are two or three different diseases that go far beyond the expert system then the physician’s intuition, years of experiences, and ability to make logical conclusion are the patient’s best hope for unraveling the underlying diseases. Computer can only go so far, it cannot consider the patient’s personality, stresses, and other factors, or judge how it might play out in the process of treatment. Only the physicians can quantify the disease taking myriad factors such as is the pain radiating down the left arm from angina or is it the late or early stages of the disease, the severity of the disease and if it get worse or not. Diagnostic software can only prompt consideration of diseases a physician might never have seen or remembered since medical school.

Sources:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2004/Jan04/01-21NxOpinion.msp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic_program

http://www.fda.gov/Fdac/features/795_compdiag.html