Google wants to become your GP
Google knows. More than once or twice you have used their search engine to consult symptoms and ask about that rash that has come out and for which you are embarrassed to ask a friend or family member. Or when you had a headache and you thought it was lupus after watching an episode of Dr. House Well, the company Google has taken action on the matter and has decided to order the medical information to offer results really useful to users concerned about their he alth.Of course, they recommend attend a consultation if you have any questions, as is logical.
And the fact is that Google has created new information cards for its browser to present data about symptoms. “Headache on one side”, “child with knee pain” and other similar queries that already involve the 1% of searches on Google (millions of searches worldwide), will return verified and reliable medical information for peace of mind or user orientation. Of course, at the moment only in the United States and with searches in English Something common in Google , which will bring these symptom consultations to more languages and countries as they develop and progress appropriately.
In such a way, and doing the search from the mobile phone (for now the only operating platform for this function), the search engine will return information marked as He alth conditions related to this search, or what is the same, a marked section that shows medical information related to the symptoms raisedUnder this heading, several information cards contain descriptions of problems related to the symptom in question. In this way, when searching for “headache”, it is possible to find cards about migraine, colds, and other diseases or pathologies related to that symptom.
Now, Google doesn't want to do this haphazardly. That is why, from their official blog, they recommend visit a doctor before carrying out any treatment And they know that this function it is merely informative, allowing the user to find reliable data that can put him on the track of what is happening to him, and that does not serve to increase his anxiety or stress. That is why they have collaborated with a team of doctors to review all this information, in addition to dealing with experts from Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic.
Users in the United States also benefit from the advances that Google made earlier this year in which medical search results could be found accompanied by fact cards about anatomy and other biological issues and medical, with images and graphs Details to have all the information in this regard, although always keeping in mind that it is not a reliable medical diagnosis.
For now we will have to wait for Google to refine the operation of this tool to ensure that users find the information that really They need to not panic. The good thing is that Google has confirmed their work to internationalize this feature and bring it to more languages soon. For now it is only available through mobile, but it will also reach searches from the computer.
