Google Prescription
How search should work when you are sick
A lot of people search their medical symptoms on the internet when they are sick. Most of these searches throw up results with too many suggestions. It is all too typical for a person searching for information on a skin rash to conclude that he has cancer after a couple of searches. For all those predictions about computers taking over the world, it is indeed sad that we still need to run to a primary care center to fix our common cold. This is an even bigger problem in places with a lack of access to primary healthcare services and where people buy medications based on word of mouth recommendations by non-qualified professionals. Even when a doctor is available, it would be much better if the doctor spent those 15 minutes of scheduled appointment time on researching a more complex problem rather than almost repeating the same treatment for common cold over and over again.
Google can do a much better job of helping you with your symptoms then what it currently does. While one might argue that there could be potential legal risks associated with giving too many suggestions, I believe those risks are overrated relative to the benefits in a lot of situations.
With the data that Google has, incorporating medical related feedback on searches related to common symptoms, should be a natural next step for Google Now. Google has already done a good job with flu trends, Now would be a good time to personalize that further.
When I search for ‘What should I take for a sore throat?’ I would like to see something like this.
It can even be great for Google’s advertising business!
I’m not saying this can be exhaustively done. But it can definitely be made to work for some of the common acute conditions like Common Cold, Stomach Pain and Stress & Anxiety. The dollar value attached to loss of productivity due to common cold is $25 billion in the United States alone. It wouldn't be such a bad thing if a better organized form of information could cut hospital visits and open up access to people who lack any kind of healthcare access.
Moreover, Google can do follow ups.
Asking the person what helped them fix their cold can provide a great feedback loop.
For a company that knows everything about you, ensuring that you don’t get the flu next year should be higher priority then suggesting you which cat video to watch next, shouldn't it?
