“Two not-for-profit privacy rights organizations have called on search engine giant Google to disclose the underlying methodology it uses in its new Google Flu Trends. Google said in a post on its official blog earlier this month that it put a team to work last year to “accurately model real-world phenomena using patterns in search queries,” including public health applications.”
Article
Joseph Conn, Modern Healthcare, 17 November 2008
Tagged: disease surveillance, privacy and search
; posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 11:18 am
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“The world’s favorite search engine launched a unique application today — and while it will really help the professionals, to me it’s both fascinating, and a little creepy!”
Article
Trisha Torrey, About.com Patient Empowerment, 12 November 2008
Tagged: disease surveillance, search and web
; posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 9:18 am
No Comments »
“I am currently in a mild state of shock. A couple of years ago - when Google.org was just created and Larry Brilliant was appointed CEO of Google.org, I sent him a preprint of my research on the correlation of searches on Google and Flu symptoms (published in 2006 here: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1839505). My hope was that a visionary guy like Larry would be open to a collaboration to explore my idea, the correlation between Internet searches and disease outbreaks (most notably influenza). I was also hoping that Google.org would perhaps be open to fund this project, or to share data.”
Article
Gunther Eysenbach’s random research rants, 11 November 2008
Tagged: disease surveillance, search and web
; posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 11:01 am
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“There is a new common symptom of the flu, in addition to the usual aches, coughs, fevers and sore throats. Turns out a lot of ailing Americans enter phrases like “flu symptoms” into Google and other search engines before they call their doctors.”
Article
Miguel Helft, The New York Times, 11 November 2008
Tagged: disease surveillance, search and web
; posted on Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 at 10:57 am
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“Web 2.0 for physicians and patients”, that is the motto of Webicina, an online service focusing on how medical professionals of the 21st century can meet the expectations of e-patients and how patients can find reliable information and web 2.0 services about a specific medical condition.”
Article
PRWeb, 6 November 2008
Tagged: e patient, health information, search and web 2.0
; posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
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“The Internet is used by 75% of American adults to search for health or medical information online; 1 in 10 are searching for health information right now as you read this [1]. Indeed, the amount of information available on the Internet related to health and medicine is staggering. While much of it is credible, an equal or greater amount of misinformation also exists.”
Article
Highlight Health 2.0, 28 October 2008
Tagged: health 2.0, health information, patient, portal, search and social network
; posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
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“Abstract This is an exploratory study that described the prevalence and patterns of internet health information seeking in Hong Kong. A convenient sample of 443 individuals completed the questionnaires. Only 44% (N = 195) of the respondents were identified as health surfers. Health surfers tended to be younger females (age group 20–29) and have higher education. Digital divide was evident by age and education. Professional health sites (78.0%) were the majority sites visited. Health topics searched ranged from women’s/men’s health to chronic diseases such as heart diseases, cancer and diabetes. Over 60% considered online health information useful, however, about 44% were uncertain about the reliability of this information. The major criteria for health websites were information from professionals and ease of understanding. The results underline the need for bridging the digital divide and the potential for pro-active use of the internet for health promotion.”
Abstract
Yuk Yee Yan, Journal of Medical Systems, DOI: 10.1007/s10916-008-9226-9
Tagged: health information, search and web
; posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 9:27 am
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“Scienceroll Search is a personalized medical search engine powered by Polymeta.com. You can choose which databases to search in and which one to exclude from your list. It works with well-known medical search engines and databases and were totally open to add new ones or remove those you dont really like.”
Article
Bertalan Mesk, ScienceRoll, 1 October 2008
Tagged: internet and search
; posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 8:22 pm
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“Searching for health information online is often said to be one of the most common activities on the Internet. Such sweeping (and only partially accurate) claims are mostly based on survey data, such as the Pew Internet & American Life Report, which found that 80% of adult Internet users, or about 93 million Americans, have searched for at least one of 16 major health topics online. The report concluded that this makes the act of looking for health or medical information one of the most popular activities online. Other surveys from industrialized countries have arrived at similar conclusions. For example, Statistics Canada concluded that between 1999 and 2003 health information was the most prevalent Internet activity each year aside from e-mail and general browsing, well ahead of such things as searching for travel information, government information, or electronic banking. Surveys further show that these trends also apply to young people. For example, a recent survey of 1,100 U.S. teens ages 1217 found that 31 percent reported seeking health information online (representing 6 million people), and that teens use of the Internet for this purpose was up 47 percent since 2000. Another survey found that three quarters of youth between the ages of 15 and 24 have used the Internet to get health information.”
Bookchapter
Gnther Eysenbach, in: Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility. Edited by Miriam J. Metzger and Andrew J. Flanagin. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 123154. doi: 10.1162/dmal.9780262562324.123
Tagged: health information, internet and search
; posted on Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 at 8:56 am
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“Keith Schorsch is a busy boy. Not only did he write a much commented piece about Google Health and PHRs on this very station last week, buthe alsopopped by last week to tell me about the new look for Trusera. Several of you saw Trusera launch at the Health 2.0 Conference last March. As of today theyve removed the Beta tag, and have introduced a new look and new features.”
Article
Matthew Holt, Health 2.0, 16 June 2008
Tagged: health information, search and social network
; posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
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“Access to online health information is something most individuals take for granted these days. Whether sifting through a million Google hits or a laborious visit to WebMD, most people with access to a computer have utilized the current online health tools. Just ten years ago, few would give credence to reputable health information posted on the Web. Even fewer of us would rely on it as a primary or secondary source of medical information. Yet, recent Pew research suggests that 8 in 10 Internet users go online for health information totaling eight million health searches on a typical day. While the depth of information on the Web has increased dramatically, the ability to access the right information has floundered in comparison. Contextual data retrieval is particularly critical with health information and by most accounts the Internet is a mess in this regard. The ground breaking idea of a new search paradigm known as Semantic Web may hold the promise of a cure.”
Article
Alex Trzebucki, Medical News Today, 13 June 2008
Tagged: data mining, health information, search and semantic
; posted on Friday, June 13th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
No Comments »
“Ive been playing with Powerset for a while. It seems to be a service that can take us to the world of semantic web or web 3.0. It uses Wikipedia and Freebase as resources. The main idea is to ask questions instead of search for terms. Lets give it a try.”
Article
Bertalan Mesk, ScienceRoll, 26 May 2008
Tagged: search and semantic
; posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 9:05 am
No Comments »
“Health care consumers today want to use the Web to find information online about doctors, specialists and care in general. And they want it to be useful.
Unfortunately, in the vast health search space based mostly on ad revenue and keyword densities, consumers often spend hours clicking links into dead ends and wind up with no more knowledge for their trouble.”
Article
Dan Kogan, The Health Care Blog, 18 May 2008
Tagged: health information and search
; posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
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“When we launched eDrugSearch.com in January 2007, we focused on the core mission of enabling consumers to safely search for low-cost drugs from Canadian and other international pharmacies. We have been successful in getting the word out and growing our site rapidly — attracting more than five million searches in our first year. We’ve done this without advertising, relying on word of mouth.
In February, we expanded our mission in a big way — with the launch of the eDrugSearch.com Community, a social network for prescription drug consumers.”
Article
Matthew Holt, Health 2.0, 5 May 2008
Tagged: drugs, health 2.0 and search
; posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 8:18 am
No Comments »
“Almost a year ago, I wrote NextBio was just like using Pubmed but in a more dynamic way. Now the public version was launched so its free for everyone.”
Article
ScienceRoll, 5 May 2008
Tagged: internet and search
; posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
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Objective A common measure of Internet search engine effectiveness is its ability to find documents that a user perceives as ‘relevant’. This study sought to test whether user provided relevance ratings for documents retrieved by an Internet search engine correlate with the decision outcome after use of a search engine.
Design 227 university students were asked to answer four randomly assigned consumer health questions, then to conduct an Internet search on one of two randomly assigned search engines of different performance, and to again answer the question.
Measurements Participants were asked to provide a relevance score for each document retrieved as well as a pre and post search answer to each question.
Results User relevance rankings had little or no predictive power. Relevance rankings were unable to predict whether the user of a search engine could correctly answer a question after search and could not differentiate between two search engines with statistically different performance in the hands of users. Only when users had strong prior knowledge of the questions, and the decision task was of low complexity, did relevance appear to have modest predictive power.
Conclusion User provided relevance rankings taken in isolation seem to be of limited to no value when designing a search engine that will be used in a general-purpose setting. Relevance rankings may have a place in situations in which experts provide rankings, and decision tasks are of complexity commensurate with the abilities of the raters. A more natural metric of search engine performance may be a user’s ability to accurately complete a task, as this removes the inherent subjectivity of relevance rankings, and provides a direct and repeatable outcome measure which directly correlates with the performance of the search technology in the hands of users.
Abstract
Enrico W. Coiera and Victor Vickland, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, April 24, 2008 as JAMIA PrePrint; doi:10.1197/jamia.M2663
Tagged: internet and search
; posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 9:42 am
No Comments »
“SearchMedica, the medical search engine controlled by medical professionals, has been re-launched.
The new version of the site features a re-designed home and results page, which according to SearchMedica makes the search engine more intuitive and easier to use.”
Article
e-Health Insider Primary Care, 28 March 2008
Tagged: search and web
; posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 8:27 am
No Comments »
“When using a search engine, should results be customized based on your personal health information (PHI)? Should your search engine of choice take into account your previous history of medical searches, or even provide results tailoredfrom data aboutyour personal medical history?”
Article
Vince Kuraitis, e-Care Management
Tagged: health information, phr and search
; posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 9:33 am
No Comments »
“Though Google announced the formal unveiling of their PHR last week, via the deal with Cleveland Clinic, today was the true coming out event when Google CEO Eric Schmidt formally introduced Google Health to the throngs at HIMSS during his keynote.
Based on the demo I received at HIMSS, conversations I have had and comments Schmidt made during his presentation heres what we are looking at.”
Article
John Moore, Chilmark Research, 28 February 2008
Tagged: communication, Google Health, phr, platform, privacy and search
; posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 10:26 am
No Comments »
“Background: Effective literature searching is particularly important for clinical practice guideline development. Sophisticated searching and filtering mechanisms are needed to help ensure that all relevant research is reviewed.
Purpose: To assess the methods used for the selection of evidence for guideline development by evidence-based guideline development organizations.
Methods: A semistructured questionnaire assessing the databases, search filters and evaluation methods used for literature retrieval was distributed to eight major organizations involved in evidence-based guideline development.
Results: All of the organizations used search filters as part of guideline development. The medline database was the primary source accessed for literature retrieval. The OVID or SilverPlatter interfaces were used in preference to the freely accessed PubMed interface. The Cochrane Library, embase, cinahl and psycinfo databases were also frequently used by the organizations. All organizations reported the intention to improve and validate their filters for finding literature specifically relevant for guidelines.
Discussion: In the first international survey of its kind, eight major guideline development organizations indicated a strong interest in identifying, improving and standardizing search filters to improve guideline development. It is to be hoped that this will result in the standardization of, and open access to, search filters, an improvement in literature searching outcomes and greater collaboration among guideline development organizations.”
Abstract
Rikie Deurenberg, Joan Vlayen, Sylvie Guillo, Thomas K. Oliver, Beatrice Fervers, Jako Burgers on behalf of the SEARCH Group, Health Information and Libraries Journal, Volume 25 Issue 1 Page 23-30, March 2008, doi:10.1111/j.1471-1842.2007.00732.x
Tagged: health information, literature and search
; posted on Friday, February 1st, 2008 at 9:38 am
No Comments »
“Background: The World Wide Web has increasingly become an important source of information in health care consumer decision making. However, little is known about whether searching online resources actually improves consumers understanding of health issues.
Objectives: The aim was to study whether searching on the World Wide Web improves consumers accuracy in answering health questions and whether consumers understanding of health issues is subject to further change under social feedback.
Conclusions: Searching across quality health information sources on the Web can improve consumers accuracy in answering health questions. However, a consumers confidence in an answer is not a good indicator of the answer being correct. Consumers who are not confident in their answers after searching are more likely to be influenced to change their views when provided with feedback from other consumers.”
Article
Lau AYS, Coiera EW, J Med Internet Res 2008;10(1):e2, published 22.01.08
Tagged: health information, literacy, search and web
; posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 9:08 am
No Comments »
“Like the healthcare industry in general, the world of online healthcare is changing rapidly, and Fathom SEO documents the changes in its latest complimentary guide: Check Yourself: The 6 Best Free Online Healthcare Tools. The guide and accompanying internet video illustrate the growing popularity of online Personal Health Monitoring services. They also exhibit how the best new health websites tend to do three things well: one, they capitalize on innovative ways to let consumers track their own health struggles and triumphs; two, they bring consumers closer to authoritative health information; and three, they bring consumers closer to each other.”
Article
PRWeb, 24 October 2007
Tagged: health 2.0, search and web
; posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
No Comments »
“Seventy percent of online consumers surveyed said they have used a Web-based search engine to find health-related information, but just 7% of online consumers surveyed said they have used a health-specific search engine, according to a survey by Forrester Research.”
Article
iHealthbeat, 19 October 2007
Tagged: health information, search and web
; posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
No Comments »
“To test whether individuals experience cognitive biases whilst searching using information retrieval systems. Biases investigated are anchoring, order, exposure and reinforcement.”
“People may experience anchoring, exposure and order biases while searching for information, and these biases may influence the quality of decision making during and after the use of information retrieval systems.”
Abstract
Annie Y.S. Lau and Enrico W. Coiera, J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2007;14:599-608
Tagged: information, search and web
; posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
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