MedSearch Vaishnav Janardhan COMS E6125 Web-Enhanced Information Management

Why another search engine???

Need for a medical search engine Nearly 1/3 rd of Americans suffer from one or the other chronic illnesses 8 in 10 Internet users have looked online for health information. That translates to 95 million Americans who use the Internet to find health information. The key difference here is to give specific answers rather than throw out hundreds of links Not to replace the doctor, but it should help the user in deciding between, visiting the local drug store to calling 911 Doc please help, Am I dying?….

Information / decision supporting material Communication with other patients Advice Advertising and Sale guidelines, clinical studies, decision aids, health information, information about pharmaceutical drugs, information about patient‘s rights, information about health politics, research findings, Self help initiatives, medical organizations, patient counsellors, ……. newsletter, mailing lists, chats, …….. Wellness-products, books, drugs,………… Which kind of information support consumers may find on the internet? And a lot of rubbish!

What are you looking for?

What do users look for?  Identify disease type based on the symptoms  Look for immediate medication based on symptoms  Side effects of medication  Prevent drug overdose  Evidence based decision aids  Patient experiences  Online tutorials  Guidelines / Medical Journals

Requirements of medical search engine  Authority  Confidentiality  Attribution  Justifiability  Transparency of authorship  Transparency of sponsorship  Honesty in advertising & editorial policy

How Search Engines Work Catalog the data from reliable source Send out software robots (or spiders) to crawl the data, add new journals reports, and update keyword indices Link across multiple resources

How MedSearch works Reduce long plain English sentences to specific key words Often the user is uncertain about his questions and unfamiliar with medical terminology. Specific boxes or drop down menus should be provided to make the query specific Determine all the terms to be included Remove all irrelevant and duplicate information Determine which search feature should be applied (i.e. AND, OR) The feature should depend on the specific symptom or any other relevant information

How MedSearch works Include relevant background information to the search query The background information include age, gender, race, current location, recent unique activities, any new cuisine tried, vaccination history (flu vaccination), recent ailments, previous medical history (include all previous medical test results) into the search queries Evaluate the produced search result for Reliability, credibility, purpose of the website, validity (how latest), if it has been reviewed? Displayed the produced results and help the user to decide the subsequent steps

MedSearch results The search results should be organized To describe how each treatment works To describe the benefits of each treatment To describe the risks of each treatment Should describe what would happen if no treatment is taken Should describe how the treatment choices affect overall quality of life

Searching is an iterative process.. What’s the cure for AIDS? AIDS is caused by HIV What’s the cure for HIV? No cure, but treatments… Best treatments for HIV?

Components of MedSearch At a minimum, both the physician (+team) and patient (+family, social context) are involved in the decision–making process Both the physician and the patient share information All the test results, X-rays, Ct scans results would be attached to the user’s profile Both take steps to participate in the decision-making process by expressing treatment preferences A decision is made and both agree on the treatment (or deferment) „It takes two to tango“

A common usage scenario of MedSearch Doctor of an elderly patient who has hypertension, congestive heart failure, sleep apnea, and obesity Has updated all recent diagnosis, relevant information like drug allergies and all test results Now wants recommendations from a new-study with overview of supporting evidence Later wants to explore recommendations in more detail, including the review of clinical trials it has included May want basic review of topics seen infrequently in practice

Apprehensions about online medical search The medical history of the patient should be secure The medical data should be protected from unlawful accesses Medical search engine should not replace a primary care physician but should help in organizing the data for better health care