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OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT03073746

Google Health Search Trial

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.

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Key information

Conditions

Diagnoses Disease Anxiety Disorders Disease Mental Disorders Pathologic Processes Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

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Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

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)

Treatment and study plan

Health Search

Other

Standard Search

Other

Primary outcomes

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

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

    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).

Secondary outcomes

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

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

    Proportion of patient's pre-visit differential diagnosis meeting the criteria of "match" with clinician post-visit differential diagnosis comparing Arm 1 (i.e. Health Search) vs. Arm 2 (i.e. Standard Search).

Other outcomes

  1. Changes in anxiety on a visual analog scale

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

    Comparing changes in anxiety (pre-clinical encounter vs. post-clinical encounter) among treatment arms. (Health Search vs. Standard Search).

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Johns Hopkins University

Other

Collaborators

  • Google LLC.

Registry information

Official study title

Accuracy of Differential Diagnosis From Google Health Search and Impact on Clinical Encounters

Acronym: GHST

Important dates

Study start
2016
Primary completion
2017
Study completion
2017
First posted
Mar 8, 2017
Registry last updated
Apr 16, 2019

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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