G
oogle has added another component to its
ever-expanding Knowledge Graph by
providing health information in Google
searches. Asking Google a medical question
brings up specialised information, such as
symptoms of an illness, if it’s contagious and what
age range it affects.
“That doesn’t mean these search results are
intended as medical advice. We know that cases
canvaryinseverityfrompersontopersonandthat
thereareboundtobeexceptions Wh t
is intended fyou should always consult a health care professional
if you have a medical concern,” said Prem
Ramaswami, Product Manager at Google. The tech
giant has worked with the Mayo Clinic, a not-for-profi t
medical research centre, to create a database of
over 400 common diseases that concerned
Android users can ask Google Now about to
research their illness.
Both the benefi ts and the dangers are clear to
see. While it can be useful to know more about an
illness you think you might have, you could gain a
misguided s nse of confidence or panic from the»www.littlegreenrobot.co.uk
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Google plays doctor
Latest addition to Google Now offers medical advice
Hyoucantrust
Launched by two ER
doctors, constantly
reviewed by the
Harvard Medical School and
downloaded by over 12 million
people, iTriage is a very reliable
app when searching for
illnesses via symptoms.iTriage Health
» Price Free^ » Android 2.The app version of the
fi rst point of call for
online diagnosis.
WebMD draws together health
analysis, tips and information
for a huge range of diseases,
illnesses and injuries.WebMD for
Android
» Price Free^ » Android 2.
Although clearly not a
replacement for the
doctor, this is a
simple, effective app for
measuring your heart rate
and recording it during work,
rest and play.Cardiograph
» Price Free
» Android Varies with deviceenhanced information. The professional layout of
the information could lead to people trusting them
more than they should. The cards look very
thorough, with diagrams from licensed medical
illustrators, graphs showing the expected age range
for the illness in question, a list of symptoms and
several more pieces of information. Phil Hagen from
the Mayo Clinic said, “As an editor and physician, I
know how diffi cult it is to present concise, useful
information. I think these should be viewed as the
fi rst stop for those needing health information.”
This feature is part of Google’s Knowledge Graph,
an on-going project to turn Google from a search
engine to a knowledge engine, attempting to learn
from the millions of searches that go through it every
day to become more intuitive. Google is learning
what pathways people take after searching for a
particular term and has begun to display the
follow-on searches online and on mobile devices.
The Health cards are just another part of this bid to
make searching easier and less of a chore.
Google Health is still very much in the
development phase, but there are plans to roll it out
beyond the US in multiple languages and vastly
increase the number of diseases available to
search. Although Google stresses that the Health
cards should not replace the doctor, it will be very
interesting to see how it is viewed by the medical
community in the months to come.