How To Guide
There is a vast amount of medical knowledge available on the Internet, and becoming an informed patient about your symptoms or knowing where to find care can be a challenge. The Isabel Symptom Checker addresses these problems by using the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) searching technology to help you understand the symptoms you are experiencing and research possible causes.
How to use Isabel?
What does Isabel do?
Isabel will help you research your symptoms, suggest possible conditions, and help you decide where to find care.
Where do I start?
What kind of help do you need? If you want to understand what's wrong with you, go to 'Understand my symptoms'. If you have already decided to seek care and need help choosing where to go, use 'Where to get care?'.
1. I would like to:
Understand my symptoms
OR Get advice on:
Understand my symptoms (1)
'Understand my symptoms' helps you view possible conditions associated with your symptoms, which you can then research and discuss with your healthcare provider.
- Tell us about your symptoms
How old are you?
| Please Select |
|---|
| Newborn 0-28 d |
| Infant 29 d-1 yr |
| Younger Child 1-5 yrs |
| Older Child 6-12 yrs |
| Adolescent 13-16 yrs |
| Young Adult 17-29 yrs |
| Adult 30-39 yrs |
| Adult 40-49 yrs |
| Adult 50-64 yrs |
| Senior 65 yrs-over |
The age group is required for all queries.
What is your gender at birth?
Choose your gender by selecting the appropriate response.
Are you pregnant?
If you have selected female and the pregnancy option appears, you can leave it as 'Don't know'. However, your results may not be as relevant. If you do know you are pregnant, select 'Pregnant', or are sure you are not pregnant, then select 'Not Pregnant' to obtain the most accurate results.
| Female | Male |
|---|---|
| Are you pregnant? | |
| Don't know | Pregnant |
Which country are you from?
This should be set according to the country where you are currently living.
What are your symptoms?
You can enter any combination of symptoms or results of laboratory tests you may have had, as long as you describe them in words and not numbers. As you enter each symptom, press the '+' or 'Return' key to add them into the system.
Describe in your own words OR select symptoms from list:
You will see the predictive text/ auto-complete function appears after you type in the 3rd character. If you see your symptom in the list, then select it. If not, just type it in.
Simple rules for entering your symptoms:
- Use medical terms as far as possible. "Abdominal pain" is better than "tummy hurts" for example.
- Do not use numbers in the query box. If you have been given a test result, then enter the meaning in words, not numbers.
- Enter only abnormal test results. Do not enter the ones you have been told are normal.
- Check your spelling.
When you've entered all your symptoms, press 'Get Results'.
2. Possible causes
These are possible conditions caused by your symptoms. The list of suggestions is based on how well the symptoms matched the database of diseases. At this stage, you should focus on learning more about the conditions suggested by clicking on the condition names.
What do the results mean?
3. Where to get care?
The next screen takes you to the 'Where to get care' Isabel triage tool which helps you decide if you need to go to the Emergency Department, see your family doctor, urgent care clinic, or get care via telemedicine.
Answer the 7 general clinical questions about your symptoms and how they have affected you.
Once you have completed the questions, select 'Get Results'. The triage tool will combine your symptom checker results with the answers to your questions and calculate a score shown on a gradient bar to indicate the appropriate care needed.
If you would like a report to take with you to your healthcare provider, click on 'Share' to compile a report recording all details you have entered.
General information
Start Click on 'Start' at any point to go back to the main landing page. The green indicator bar shows where you currently are.
Edit If you want to change your symptoms, or add something you may have forgotten, just click on 'edit' and you can start again.
These enable you to save, print, or email the symptoms you entered and the results you received. Each condition listed is linked to medical knowledge from other websites.
Contact a doctor or Find a lab test
Once you have researched your symptoms and read various resources, discuss your findings with your doctor before changing or stopping any medications.
The Isabel Symptom Checker can be used on any device that is connected to the internet, providing 24/7 access.