Google will today start presenting healthcare information in a new way – both for users of traditional Internet browsers as well as on its Google mobile app.
The change will no doubt redefine how Americans obtain health information online. But it will also likely shake up what the average health-seeker finds on the Internet and eventually change how medical authorities present health information.
This is a massive undertaking with high stakes for health consumers, the medical industry and for Google. One in every 20 searches on Google is about health information, according to the company. But it’s bigger than that. At least three-quarters of all health inquiries begin at a search engine, according to the Pew Research Center. Plus, more than half of all health searches are now done on mobile devices, Pew states.
Google is taking the view that healthcare information needs to be presented in a better and more accurate manner. As part of this endeavor, it forged a partnership with Mayo Clinic, which is reviewing all the content in the project.
“Access to healthcare and health information is not at great levels,” said Prem Ramaswami, the Google product manager involved with the project. “We want to inform people.”
So now the average health consumer will begin to see an expanded box alongside their Google searches. If on the Google app, it will be an expanded box with even deeper details.
Either way, the box will be filled with enhanced information culled from throughout the web, verified by multiple physicians and, finally, signed off by doctors from Mayo. Altogether, an average of 11.1 physicians have inspected and approved the information Google will now present, Ramaswami said.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The information could include a special, commissioned illustration of the disease; whether it’s rare or common; what ages are effected; and how the disease is treated.
Google will gradually integrate these changes over the next three days. It is beginning with 400 medical conditions, ranging from pink eye to diabetes to the measles to tonsillitis. All told the new format will cover about 10 percent of all current health searches.
But Google officials said they plan to scale the project quickly and eventually take it to a global level.
What Google is essentially doing is applying its Knowledge Graph strategy to healthcare. The Knowledge Graph is used by Google to understand and connect a simple search with other issues and information connected to that inquiry. You often see these boxes alongside searches of movie stars, sports heroes and other personalities (a more anemic information box already appears beside some health searches).
With the Knowledge Graph, Google tries to anticipate what else you want to know beyond your first search.
Healthcare is unique among subjects that receive the full Knowledge-Graph treatment. Like other topics, Google tries to gather information from the Web’s most reliable sites. But then, that information will be curated by a team of licensed physicians. Illustrations are then added (which are also approved by multiple doctors). Finally, Mayo signs off on the information and then it’s published (Mayo is credited in the boxes, according to some of the designs).
“It provides a scaffolding of information,” said Google’s Dr.Kapil Parakh, who led the effort to vet the information with other physicians across the country. “You have sort of a way to communicate and you can actually have an informed discussion.”
With this health project, Google is also trying to capitalize on the growing use of mobile devices. A good deal of the design caters to the Google app on the Android and iOS platforms.
“There’s a lot of emphasis on mobile,” Ramaswami said. “The focus is on mobile because users are searching more on the go and that is the sort of experience we have planned around.” Voice-activated searches from the app are growing at a similar clip and that has also been factored into the design, he added.
Dr. Philip Hagen, medical director of Healthy Living Online for the Mayo Clinic and a medical editor, said the health system simply hopes to help disseminate better information to curious consumers.
Mayo Clinic’s site is ad-supported and its sure to see a spike in traffic, but that wasn’t the main motivating factor, Hagen said.
“I certainly am sensitive to the need for accurate information, so if you take a site like Google, which is a first stop for a lot of people, I’d love it if they can get good, reliable information when they start,” Hagen said. “We already have really high traffic but we’ll take more if we can get it. We don’t really have any preconceived notions about what we’ll get. It’s an opportunity for technology and medicine to explore where there are synergies and see if it works.”
From a consumer’s standpoint, Google’s entrance into the online healthcare information space should be a tremendous boon, said Dr. Russell Faust, managing partner at consultancy Windriven Group, which focuses on healthcare social media and the online presence of health systems. Faust didn’t work on the Google project, but was provided information by MedCity News so he could discuss it.
“So much of the stuff online to provide help is not to actually help, it’s to drive traffic, for products, for pay per click (advertising),” Faust said. “People don’t know better, they take that stuff hook line and sinker, and it’s a problem.”
To be clear, Google isn’t putting forth medical advice with this project. Nor is the Mayo Clinic. But all sides agree that the current health information landscape is often beset with pseudo science and misinformation. It’s certainly a timely moment for the unveiling, considering the battle to separate fact from fiction on the topic of vaccines.
Faust said: “I think it’s a huge step in the right direction.”
Ramaswami, Google’s product manager, likewise said the end goal is to bring clarity to the cacophonous internet ecosystem of health information.
“We want users to not get stuck in these valleys of misinformation,” he said.
