Usually, typing your symptoms into Google leads you down a rabbit hole that ends with you sobbing into your pillow that you’re about to die a horrible, grisly death when all you’ve got is a headache. Indeed, Google states that one percent of all of the searches on Google are related to medical conditions (that’s millions of searches) and that the results are often incredibly stressful when they don’t have to be. So Google has finally recognised that people are ultimately too lazy or poor to visit the doctor or simply trust the internet too much, and has created a new service to help.
Thankfully, they’ve paired with actual doctors from Harvard Medical School and the Mayo Clinic to ascertain the best relationships between symptoms and possible conditions. When users type in their symptoms, Google will show users the related conditions that it could indicate and treatment options such as whether you could treat it by yourself or whether it necessitates a visit to the doctor.
Google warns that it is not dispensing medical advice, reminding users that the service exists to inform patients of existing medical information. The service is also still growing, so if your symptoms aren’t covered yet, they may soon be. Despite this, it will be a very useful tool for those people that can’t afford or can’t access medical care every time they are worried about their health.
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