Patients are not the only people turning to the Internet for medical information.

Searching the worldwide web with engines such as Google Inc may also help doctors to diagnose perplexing medical conditions, Australian researchers said.

"Our study suggests that in difficult cases, it is often useful to google for a diagnosis," said Hangwi Tang, of the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane.

To test how good Google is, Tang and his colleagues selected three to five search terms for 26 difficult-to-diagnose illnesses reported in a medical journal and did a Google search.

After recording the top ranked answers that seemed to fit the symptoms and comparing them with the correct diagnosis, they found the Google searches came up with the right answer in 15, (58 percent) of cases.

"Web-based search engines such as Google are becoming the latest tools in clinical medicine, and doctors in training need to become proficient in their use," Tang said in the study published online by the British Medical Journal.