Clinical trial NCT03073746: Google Health Search Trial
Official title: Accuracy of Differential Diagnosis From Google Health Search and Impact on Clinical Encounters
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Diagnoses Disease
Keywords: Google
Knowledge Panels
Health Search
Online
Internet
Smartphone
Tablet
Digital
Mobile
Symptoms
Differential diagnosis
Diagnosis
Anxiety
Lead sponsor: Johns Hopkins University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Google LLC.
First posted: 2017-03-08
Enrollment: 300
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Participants presenting with new symptoms to either an urgent care center or emergency department will be randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to one of three groups. 1. Access to Health Search (i.e. Google's new health search platform for mobile devices; Health Knowledge Panels and Symptom Search Tool); 2. Access to Standard Search (i.e. prior version of Google search); 3. Usual Care. Groups 1 and 2 will use a tablet or mobile phone to search while group 3 will not.
Primary purpose: OTHER

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.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* 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

Exclusion Criteria:

* 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)

Primary outcomes:
measure: Accuracy of patient's pre-visit differential diagnosis after Google searching on a tablet or mobile phone.
timeFrame: Assessing diagnostic accuracy from baseline to up to one hour post-clinical encounter.
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Accuracy of differential diagnosis of Health Search vs. Standard Search
timeFrame: Assessing diagnostic accuracy from baseline to up to one hour post-clinical encounter.
Other outcomes:
measure: Changes in anxiety on a visual analog scale
timeFrame: Assessing a change in anxiety from baseline to up to one hour post clinical encounter.
Locations:
city: Baltimore
country: United States
facility: Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
state: Maryland
city: Baltimore
country: United States
facility: Johns Hopkins Hospital
state: Maryland
Study officials:
affiliation: Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
name: Seth S Martin, MD, MHS
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: "Health Fact Sheet." Pew Research Center, Washington D.C. (December 16, 2013). http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/health-fact-sheet/.