Calling Dr. Google
Reports surfaced a few weeks ago indicating that Web users were relying on the Internet for answers to their medical queries and concerns. A report titled “Online Health Search 2006” was released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and indicated that 74% of respondents were confident that they could make “appropriate health care decisions” after their most recent health information query, and that eight out of ten American adults (or about 113 million adults in the U.S.) searched for one of Pew’s 17 health topics this year.
In addition to this, about three-quarters of those searching for health information online “only sometimes,” “hardly ever,” or “never” verified the source and date of the information they found online.
Doctors expressed their concern with these findings, but now they might have another problem on their hands: themselves.
A study was published recently by the British Medical Journal, reporting the results of a test involving Australian doctors. These doctors were given 26 real-life medical cases of patients who had been diagnosed with rare illnesses. They were asked to search Google with three to five search terms for helpful information about these illnesses based on the symptoms, without being told what diagnoses had been conducted.
In 58% of the cases (15 of the 26 cases), Google returned the right diagnosis. In the other 42%, doctors found a diagnosis on Google, but not one that included enough details to be reliable.
The report said that doctors are turning more and more to the Web for help, and that Google is quickly becoming the online reference of choice.
All of this can be interpreted as quite startling. Doctors expressed their concern when it comes to patients diagnosing themselves using search engines, but it seems that they should be concerned about themselves as well.
Would a patient be comforted in knowing that their doctor diagnosed their rare illness with Google? Probably not, especially with a 42% chance that the diagnosis could be incorrect or insufficient.
All of this adds to the growing evidence that there is a noticeable demand for Google to create a health-specific search engine. For Google, their trusted brand when it comes to search would allow it to easily establish themselves as the leading online health resource, in terms of breadth, depth, and accuracy of information.
Until then, patients and doctors alike will be using various sources on the Internet as an important source of their health information.
Sources:
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=health&id=4751320
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id
=vn20061112095627872C343574
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/11/13/Google_Doctor_on_the
_horizon/
