Dr. Google
Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, remember that with search engines unlike other companies, all it takes is a single click to go to another search engine - Sergey Brin
image by: Dr. Luciano Moreira
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Dr Google isn't the most dangerous 'doctor' on the internet
Who is your preferred source for health advice? Gwyneth Paltrow? Pete Evans? Or qualified medical practitioners – like Dr Oz?
I hate to break it to you, but if you’re getting advice from any of these people, you’re quite likely being misled. For example, contrary to Gwyneth Paltrow’s website, experts advise inserting jade “eggs” into your vagina is a very bad idea. And last time I checked, Facebook wasn’t a peer-reviewed medical website, but that doesn’t seem to matter to 20 per cent of people using it for health advice.
The sheer volume of online health information now at our fingertips is both a blessing and a curse. How do you determine what is right and what is outright…
Resources
This new AI tool from Google could change the way we search online
For over two decades, Google has been indexing the web. Now it’s attempting to understand nuances in human language so it can deliver better search experiences.
Google’s New Health-Search Engine
Making the $3T health data searchable, and maybe, monetizable.
How Google is trying to make online self-diagnosis less terrifying
With the company’s new and improved symptom search, which recently launched on mobile in the United States, Google aims to deliver more accurate and accessible medical information to users.
Doctors Really, Really Want You to Stop Googling Your Symptoms
There’s a term for this: cyberchondria, first coined in a 2001 BBC article and later adopted by researchers studying how the internet fuels health anxieties. And there’s plenty of it going around — a 2013 Pew survey found that just over a third of U.S. adults have turned to the internet to help them figure out a health issue, while Google noted in a blog post earlier this summer than around one percent of its searches are on medical topics.
Here's What 6 Doctors Really Think of Dr. Google
Google says it has worked with a team of doctors led by Google's Dr. Kapil Parakh, to "carefully compile, curate, and review this information. All of the gathered facts represent real-life clinical knowledge from these doctors and high-quality medical sources across the web, and the information has been checked by medical doctors at Google and the Mayo Clinic for accuracy." Here's what six real doctors think about the initiative.
Is It OK for Doctors to "Google" Patients?
A new paper lists 10 situations when it's justified including when docs have a duty to warn of possible harm, if a patient's story seem improbable or if there are suspicions of abuse or concerns of suicide risk.
The effect of Dr Google on doctor–patient encounters in primary care: a quantitative, observational, cross-sectional study
The emerging use of the internet for searching health information, commonly referred to as 'Dr Google', is not seen as a threat by GPs and leads to a better mutual understanding of symptoms and diagnosis.
What Dr Google Does To Our Opinion Of Doctors
The healthcare industry has had a long and troubled history with ‘Dr Google’. On one hand, it’s great that we are empowered and enabled in finding out more information about our health and wellbeing, but on the other, the information we find can often do more harm than good, turning us into a nation of hypochondriacs. A recent paper suggests that the problems could run deeper than that.
When Cancer Meets the Internet
Dr. Google doesn’t always know what’s best.
Why You Should Never Google Your Symptoms
Just about anyone with Internet access and a body that occasionally goes haywire has had the experience of googling their symptoms and watching, horrified, as the results stream in. Headache = brain tumor! Sharp pain in your side = punctured lung! Sore post-workout legs = deep vein thrombosis! "Yes, you might have a rash, and, yes, you might have seen something somewhere about cancer," says functional medicine doctor Robin Berzin, M.D., founder of Parsley Health.
Wikipedia is already the world’s ‘Dr Google’ - it’s time for doctors and researchers to make it better
Health professionals have a duty to improve the accuracy of medical entries in Wikipedia, according to a letter published today in Lancet Global Health, because it’s the first port of call for people all over the world seeking medical information.
'Dr Google' can help patient-doctor relationship, study finds
Performing online searches for health information - colloquially known as using "Dr Google" - leads to a better mutual understanding of symptoms and diagnosis between a patient and their GP, a new research paper found.
Be Careful Using The Internet to Get Medical Information: or, How Medicine is as Much Art as Science
There are a several problems with internet medical information. One is the sheer volume of it; as they say, it’s like drinking from a fire hose. Another problem is that a nontrivial portion of the information is misleading or just wrong.
Dr Google is a poor substitute for your GP
We owe it to our kids to have the most medically qualified person calling the shots and that is a GP Ditch the virtual doc and consult a human one instead.
Dr Google will see you now: Google launches self-diagnosis search
We’ve all been there. A mystery mole/rash/fungus/phlegmy cough appears. You whip out your phone ask Google what’s up. Then you start planning your own funeral.
Dr Google will see you now: my day in the life of a cyberchondriac
There's a phenomenon within Wikipedia where if you repeatedly click the first link of each article you land on, you will eventually land up on the page titled 'Philosophy'. A similar quirk occurs on many medical websites. If you keep following links, you will eventually land on a page titled 'You are about to die of a serious illness and/or obscure tropical disease (and/or cancer)'.
Dr. Google And The New Group Practice That Includes Drs. Apple and Amazon
The emergence of Google, Apple and Amazon into health might transform the industry or just provide new thinking that changes everyone's perspective. Either way, Dr. Google has two new partners in its practice of medicine, and they include Dr. Apple and Dr. Amazon.
Dr. Google Will See You Now
FEELING good today? You are not alone. We’re approaching Aug. 11, which is, excluding Christmastime, the happiest day of the year in this country. Or at least the day with the lowest rate of depression, according to our Google searches.
Getting Medical Information from the Internet
Like all doctors these days, many of my patients’ families search the internet for medical information. Often the day after I’ve had a long discussion with a family they return with fresh questions they’ve obtained overnight from Dr. Google.
Google adds fact-checked medical information to search
Basic information on symptoms, treatments, and the rarity of the conditions will now pop up in the Knowledge Graph.
Google Will Make Health Searches Less Scary With Fact-Checked Results
Dr. Google has always been a bit of a quack, doling out ever shoddier medical advice with every passing search result. Search the symptoms of a rash and somehow, someway, you will inevitably come to believe you have cancer. Now, the search engine is trying to bring some much-needed validity to the world of health-related searches with a new database of 400 commonly searched medical conditions that have been extensively fact-checked by doctors at the Mayo Clinic.
I’m Feeling Yucky :( Searching for symptoms on Google
Picture this: you woke up today with a headache. It’s been getting worse all day, and you aren’t sure if you should be worried or not. So you open the Google app and start searching for your symptoms. After 20 minutes digging through health forums, chances are you're overwhelmed by all the complicated medical terms and breaking out in a sweat—whether that’s related to the headache or the overdose of info is unclear! So starting in the coming days, when you ask Google about symptoms like “headache on one side,” we’ll show you a list of related conditions (“headache,” “migraine,” “tension headache,” “cluster headache,” “sinusitis,” and “common cold”).
New Information Shouldn't Alter Good Health Practices
Scientists form new ideas about health all the time. But changing our habits every time a headline suggests a change in conventional medical wisdom may be a direct path to a less healthy life.
Retraction Watch: Providing Information About Bad Information
In a field supposedly peer-reviewed and self-correcting, there is a decided lack of transparency and dissemination when it comes to retractions. Enter Retraction Watch, which aims to change the paradigm.
Some Reliable Internet Sources of Medical Information
Like many physicians, many of my patients’ families use Dr. Google to help them understand their children’s illnesses. Overall I think this is a good thing. After all, I blog about these things, and from the feedback I get, many parents appreciate what I and other physician-bloggers do. I also get a lot of requests about where to turn for reliable information.
Stop Asking Dr. Google for Advice
As a physician, who manages an illness for which there is currently no cure, and for which multiple treatment regimens may well be viable choices, I have to remain open-minded about my patients' choices. Nevertheless, my goals are to use the knowledge and experience accumulated over my career to improve symptoms, preserve quality of life and help avoid complications (like hospitalization and surgery) — all while respecting my patients’ autonomy. That sometimes means having to ask my patient to stop asking Dr. Google for advice.
The Value of Struggle, and How You're Letting Technology Diminish It
You can find so much on the Internet. But if you want to increase your brainpower, you may be looking in the wrong place.
“Dr. Google,” Friend or Foe?
For me, the answer to whether Google is friend or foe is that it is both. Google (or any search engine) is a mixed bag. The range of information is astonishing. At times, it can be tremendously helpful. At other times, however, it can lead me down the wrong path—giving me inaccurate information and even scaring me unnecessarily about a health issue.
Dr Google isn't the most dangerous 'doctor' on the internet
Who is your preferred source for health advice? Gwyneth Paltrow? Pete Evans? Or qualified medical practitioners – like Dr Oz? The Conversation I hate to break it to you, but if you’re getting advice from any of these people, you’re quite likely being misled.
Google Health
At Google we’re committed to improving the lives of as many people as possible. One of the most important areas in which we’re striving to do that is health.
The 20 most Googled diseases
Looking for a digital diagnosis can either increase or alleviate concerns about a possible illness, according to Microsoft researchers. And there’s even a word that’s cropped up — “cyberchondria” — to describe what happens when searching for medical information starts to become a condition unto itself.
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