Google has announced that its search engine will now display medical data regarding common health conditions. The internet giants Knowledge Graph will present relevant information about symptoms, treatments, and "details on how common the condition is — whether it’s critical, if it’s contagious, what ages it affects, and more." Google will be rolling out the feature in US in the next few days.
Users will now be able to search for symptoms or health conditions within Google, rather than going on external websites. Google’s Knowledge Graph will show how common conditions are, and whether they’re contagious or critical, as well as other information. Some of the cards will even show illustrations. However the company warns that the results shouldn’t be seen as medical advice, and users should always consult a health professionals if they are worried.
Prem Ramaswami, a Google product manager, announced the new feature in a blog post: “Once you get this basic info from Google, you should find it easier to do more research on other sites around the web, or know what questions to ask your doctor.”
He adds, "We worked with a team of medical doctors (led by our own Dr. Kapil Parakh, M.D., MPH, Ph.D.) 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."
Google states that one in every 20 queries is medical related on its search engine. The addition of medical information is a part of the company's effort's in health, which includes the Google Fit app as well as health and fitness data services.
Source: Google