Google Health Search Trial
- Conditions
- Diagnoses Disease
- Interventions
- Other: Health SearchOther: Standard Search
- Registration Number
- NCT03073746
- Lead Sponsor
- Johns Hopkins University
- Brief Summary
There are large differences in knowledge between patients and healthcare providers (i.e. physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners), and there is a strong interest on the part of both industry and academia to reduce the gap in knowledge between patients and healthcare providers. Currently, about 1 in 20 searches on Google are health related. Among internet users, 72% reported searching for health information, and among persons who use mobile phones, 31% of cell phone users and 52% of smartphone users have looked up health or medical information. Oftentimes, patients will search on Google or other search engines in order to find health conditions that explain their symptoms prior to visiting their healthcare provider. With the launch of Google's new health search tools for mobile devices (i.e. smartphones, tablets, etc.) it is important to understand how patients use these search platforms and what their effects are on clinical encounters. The main objective of this study is to understand the accuracy of differential diagnoses generated by Google searching; the investigators hypothesize that searching on Google using a tablet or mobile device will be more accurate than not using any search tool, and that the new health search experience will improve accuracy over the standard search platform.
- Detailed Description
Not available
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- COMPLETED
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 300
- Adult patient >= 18 years of age
- Presenting for care at urgent care or emergency department
- In search of a diagnosis to explain a new symptom or group of symptoms
- Not literate, defined as lacking the ability to read and write (self-reported)
- Non-English Speaking (self-reported)
- Not mentally competent to provide consent due to inability to understand relevant information due to deficit in intelligence (e.g. mental retardation), memory (e.g., advanced dementia or significant delirium), or attention span (e.g., Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or mania) based on prior documentation in medical records or as judged by the researchers)
- Unable to use phone/tablet for any mental or physical impairment (e.g., blind) (self-reported)
- Exacerbation of chronic condition (self-reported)
Study & Design
- Study Type
- INTERVENTIONAL
- Study Design
- PARALLEL
- Arm && Interventions
Group Intervention Description Health Search Health Search Access to Health Knowledge Panels and Symptom Search Tool. Standard Search Standard Search No access to Health Knowledge Panels and Symptom Search Tool, but access to prior version of Google search.
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Accuracy of patient's pre-visit differential diagnosis after Google searching on a tablet or mobile phone. Assessing diagnostic accuracy from baseline to up to one hour post-clinical encounter. Proportion of patient's pre-visit differential diagnosis meeting the criteria of "match" with clinician post-visit differential diagnosis (i.e. Two of the three conditions on the clinician's differential diagnosis were more likely to be present in the patient's pre-visit assessment when a tablet or mobile phone was present).
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method Accuracy of differential diagnosis of Health Search vs. Standard Search Assessing diagnostic accuracy from baseline to up to one hour post-clinical encounter. Proportion of patient's pre-visit differential diagnosis meeting the criteria of "match" with clinician post-visit differential diagnosis comparing Arm 1 (i.e. Health Search) vs. Arm 2 (i.e. Standard Search).
Trial Locations
- Locations (2)
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
🇺🇸Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Johns Hopkins Hospital
🇺🇸Baltimore, Maryland, United States