Sean Parnell and health experts talk about the benefits of telehealth – accessing care at home through high-speed broadband
GOOGLE is stripping the quackery out of search results.
It has called in doctors to check results before they hit the top of the rankings.
FOOD ALLERGIES: Aussies increasingly using internet
Australian Medical Association Queensland president Shaun Rudd said most of his patients had visited “Dr Google” before seeing him.
Dr Rudd welcomed Google’s move to have doctors vet the information for hundreds of commonly searched health conditions, before pushing these to the top of the search engine results.
“If used correctly the internet can offer useful information … but it’s important they find credible sites and interpret information properly,” he said.
“Diagnosis should be left to a medical practitioner, but I think Google can help get more people to the doctor to get checked and that is a good thing.”
Google announced this week on their official blog that all the gathered facts represented real-life clinical knowledge but is not a substitute for visiting a health professional.
“We are rolling it out over the next few days in the US in English to start,” product manager Prem Ramaswami said.
“In the long run not only do we plan to cover many more medical conditions but we also want to extend this to other parts of the world.”
Dr Rudd is not concerned that the refining of internet information will cancel out the need to see the doctor.
“There are always going to be people who jump to all the wrong conclusions when they Google their symptoms and scare themselves,” he said. “But we hope that mostly people are encouraged to check out anything suspicious.”
In 2014, the most googled health topic was ebola, with sleep paralysis and Chemist Warehouse in top 10 searches. In 2004, cancer, anorexia and heart were among top searches.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Dr Frank R. Jones warns against self-diagnosis, and advises people who are concerned about their health to print out the information and take it to their doctor.
“We don’t want to discourage people from taking an active interest in their health, but they need to remember that what they read on the internet is no substitute for the quality care GPs provide,” he said.
Gold Coast midwife Amanda Bude has seen a big spike in parents turning to the internet over their babies’ health issues.
“I do get concerned,” she said.
“One of the main things I hear that came from the internet is the idea that if you put a glass jar on a rash and it disappears it is just virus-related, but if the rash doesn’t disappear then you need to seek medical help.
“Or parents take photos of rashes and post on Facebook asking other parents to diagnose.”