Google Health Search Trial

NCT03073746 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: IRB00088552
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 300
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

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.

Conditions

Diagnoses Disease

Keywords

Google; Knowledge Panels; Health Search; Online; Internet; Smartphone; Tablet; Digital; Mobile; Symptoms; Differential diagnosis; Diagnosis; Anxiety

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Accuracy of patient's pre-visit differential diagnosis after Google searching on a tablet or mobile phone.

  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).

  Assessing diagnostic accuracy from baseline to up to one hour post-clinical encounter.

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Accuracy of differential diagnosis of Health Search vs. Standard Search

  Assessing diagnostic accuracy from baseline to up to one hour post-clinical encounter.

Other Outcomes (1)

• Changes in anxiety on a visual analog scale

  Assessing a change in anxiety from baseline to up to one hour post clinical encounter.

Study Arms (3)

Health Search

EXPERIMENTAL

Access to Health Knowledge Panels and Symptom Search Tool.

Other: Health Search

Standard Search

EXPERIMENTAL

No access to Health Knowledge Panels and Symptom Search Tool, but access to prior version of Google search.

Other: Standard Search

No Search

NO INTERVENTION

No access to Health Knowledge Panels, Symptom Search Tool, prior version of Google search, or mobile device.

Interventions

Health Search OTHER

Health Search

Standard Search OTHER

Standard Search

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• 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

You may not qualify if:

• 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)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Johns Hopkins University: lead
• Google LLC.: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center

Baltimore, Maryland, 21224, United States

Location

Johns Hopkins Hospital

Baltimore, Maryland, 21287, United States

Location

Related Publications (1)

• "Health Fact Sheet." Pew Research Center, Washington D.C. (December 16, 2013). http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/health-fact-sheet/.

  BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Disease; Anxiety Disorders

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Seth S Martin, MD, MHS

  Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: CARE PROVIDER
• Masking Details: Healthcare providers will not have knowledge of the interventions assigned to individual participants.
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: 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.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: February 16, 2017
• First Posted: March 8, 2017
• Study Start: September 7, 2016
• Primary Completion: August 9, 2017
• Study Completion: August 15, 2017
• Last Updated: April 16, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-04

Locations

US (2)