Here's what people are looking for before going to the hospital

Accepting medical help in this country is often not an easy task, especially because of the rising costs of health care. It is not surprising then that many people in need of emergency care first turn to Dr. Google for advice, according to a new study released Thursday.

The study found that more than half of the patients who visited an emergency room and wishing to share the history of their searches on Google had searched for information related to their health issues during the course of their stay. week before their visit.

Between March 2016 and 2017, the study's authors, based at the University of Pennsylvania, asked more than 700 patients who visited a nearby emergency room to own a Google Account. About 300 of them said that they had done it. And, in what is perhaps the most shocking part of the study, 119 people added that they were only ferocious, with a group of doctors rummaging through the probably horny trash that was the history of their research. Those who had immediate life-threatening injuries (for example, a gunshot wound) or who were under 18 years were excluded, eventually leaving the team with 103 patients whose history they could see.

Of these patients, 53% did research directly related to the health problems they reported during the seven days prior to their visit. This research usually involved looking for information about their symptoms or trying to determine what exact illness they might have had. Fifteen percent of patients also searched for information on emergency services or hospitals, such as the address of the nearest available. Overall, Google searches for health-related information that doubled in the week before their visit, compared to their usual search habits.

The results of the study were published in BMJ Open.

"Although we are at the beginning of this research, we have learned a lot about the questions that patients ask themselves before making the decision to go to an emergency department, as well as about the issues that arise. they have about their care after their visit, "said lead author Jeremy Asch, a researcher at Penn's Digital Medicine Center for Digital Health at the University, in a statement.

Asch and other researchers in his field have long been trying to use our digital stories as an indirect means of studying attitudes or behaviors related to health. Some research has even suggested that Twitter and other social media networks could be used to predict outbreaks of diseases such as the flu before they are easily apparent. But social media publications, by their nature, are not an imperfect indicator of what people really think because they are meant to be seen by others.

According to the authors, this study is the first to link web searches and the medical histories of those involved, which, he hopes, will lead to more accurate predictions or better understanding of problem understanding. health of people. One patient, for example, searched Google for "How big is a nut," and then "What is a fibrous tumor?" A review of their records revealed that the patient had previously been told by a doctor that they had a "fibrous tumor the size of a walnut". . "

"The doctor who cared for this patient might have thought that effective communication had taken place," said Asch. "But if the patient then had to look for the two key terms -" walnut "and" fibrous tumor "- it is clear that communication with the patient was not efficient enough."

Although Google has become an important part of our digital lifestyle, it's becoming increasingly clear that this has its drawbacks, and that's certainly the case with Google's use as a doctor. Physicians and some studies have argued that research into any health-related topic can result in a flurry of confusing information or outright myths, which can then undermine patient confidence in their doctors. (However, at least one study has found that googling before a visit to the emergency room can really help relieve the concerns of patients). That is to say, not to mention videos and conspiracy conspiracy YouTube ads, accessible in one click.

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There will be no simple solution to reduce this startup noise or to ensure that patients and physicians are in phase with each other. However, the fact that so many patients have (in one way or another!) Agreed to share their Google history, say the authors, is a good sign for us to use this type of information. digital information to "better predict the use of health care and better understand health-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of more general populations."

An example of this, they said, could be personalized information about resources for people seeking serious health problems, in the same way that information about emergency and suicide lines can now appear when the use of certain search terms. That said, even these prompts could still be changed, so it's not necessarily a perfect idea.

[BMJ Open via University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine]