How are you feeling today? I've got a few aches and pains, but nothing serious.However, when things become more critical, 1 would normally book myself an appointment with my doctor—although by the time I get to see him, the problem will have probably gone away.That's because in the UK at least, we usually have to wait a few days before the doctor can fit us in.

Luckily today, technology has come to our rescue.There are thousands of apps available on our smartphones that can offer first aid advice and allow us to self-diagnose our sickness- -ranging from a simple cold or flu to some exotic disease.

And together with the internet, we have an ocean of medical information at our fingertips.

But is too much knowledge a good thing? By reading up on an illness, we discover its side-effects and what could happen in a worst-case situation.More worrying is that we give ourselves the wrong diagnosis, and then worry ourselves sick that we're going to die.This health anxiety, fueled by the internet, is called "cyberchondria".It gives sufferers a deep fear of diseases and, according to experts, it's on the rise.Professor Peter Tyrer from Imperial College London said, “We find that approximately four out of five of our patients with health anxiety spend literally hours on the internet.One of the first things we do in treatment is to tell them to stop browsing the internet."

A study a few years ago also found many doctors felt intimidated by the increasing numbers of web-wise patients arriving in surgeries.One doctor admitted to not being very happy about patients using the internet, saying: "They all seemed to come to me with things I’d never heard of and very often with things which seem rather bizarre or inappropriate."

Of course there is no doubt, the world wide web has most of the information we need to diagnose our symptoms, but Doctor Tyrer points out, "it doesn't have any judgment associated with it.” This is why having a consultation with a doctor face-to-face still has its benefits.

It would seem then that a virtual online doctor can prescribe a dose of useful advice, but technology hasn’t replaced the human medical expert just yet.