Dive Brief:
- Google is working with Mayo Clinic and the Harvard Medical School to improve its symptom search by reviewing individual symptom information, according to a recent blog post.
- The world's largest search engine plans to make symptom searches available on desktop browsers and extend the services to international markets in languages other than English.
- About 1% of Google's search queries are related to medical symptoms, the company said.
Dive Insight:
"We worked with a team of medical doctors to carefully review the individual symptom information, and experts at Harvard Medical School and Mayo Clinic evaluated related conditions for a representative sample of searches to help improve the lists we show," said Google Product Manager Veronica Pinchin.
Google's recent foray into healthcare has been anything but subtle. In fact, the data giant even hinted at becoming a payer earlier this year.
Some of the health-related “moonshots” Alphabet, Google's parent company, is working on include a wearable device that can target cancer cells and a pill to detect cancer and other diseases, both by sending magnetic nanoparticles into the bloodstream. Other endeavors involve interventions to slow the aging process and a glucose-monitoring contact lens.