Dr. Google: Is it right or wrong to search for medical information and symptoms on the Internet?

Chances are you’ve received medical advice online at least once in your life, and since Google is the dominant search engine, everything points to the fact that you’ve consulted Dr. Google. same company is conscious that a significant portion of the searches carried out on its search engine correspond to medical information, and although it has made efforts – by the way, some are quite outdated— To provide reliable and systematized information, there are several important problems: firstly, misinformation, and secondly, cyberchondria (a type of digital hypochondria).

Is it right or wrong to search for a doctor’s consultation on Google?

First, some data. According to information from Live statistics on the Internet Google processes about 40,000 search queries every second, which means 3.5 billion search queries every day. Regarding this figure, a study published in the US National Library of Medicine estimates that 4.5% of these queries correspond to medical consultations, meaning “Dr. Google” sees about 77 million patients every day.

Now, according to This article was published BBC in 2017 and which interviews cyberpsychologist Mary Aiken, consultations range from mild symptoms such as headaches to consultations that she explains usually don’t make it to the doctor due to painful situations. For example, hemorrhoids, candidiasis (usually vaginal yeast infections), lupus, herpes zoster (shingles), and psoriasis.

The problem, the specialist notes, is that many of Dr. Google’s consultations can end with the development of a troubling problem called “cyberchondria,” that is, the assumption that a person has a disease just because certain symptoms match those of that or disease.

Is Dr. Google good or bad? Here’s what the scientific literature says

After searching Google, we found at least six studies (see end of article for full list) published by the US National Library of Medicine on Google’s reliability in providing health information. All studies analyze medical information related to a specific type of disease or condition, e.g. in cases of strabismusand their findings, although with some specific differences, generally indicate that Google—and the Internet in general—is a good tool for learning more about a disease, but is in no way a substitute for medical advice.

For example, regarding the above article on strabismus, experts from the Department of Ophthalmic Pediatrics and Treatment of Adult Strabismus at Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital in India say: “We encourage patients to use the Internet to learn more about their disease if the information is for advice on the etiopathogenesis and associated disorders is reliable. Treatment information may be incomplete and is often written by inexperienced people and for commercial purposes.”

Websites with reliable medical information

According to this article is from St. Jude Children’s Research HospitalHere are some sites with reliable medical information:

www.stjude.org/peoplesandparents

https://medlineplus.gov/spanish/

www.healthfinder.gov

www.merck.com/mmhe

www.kidshealth.org

From the list of sites suggested by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, our number 1 recommendation is MedlinePlus, and the US National Library of Medicine website has information translated into Spanish.

*Research conducted taking into account:

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15335363/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11097441/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16242061/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20362253/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22156872/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11217261/