By now, many of you have seen the report from Microsoft detailing a study they did on “Cyberchondria,” which the New York Times describes as “the practice of leaping to dire conclusions while researching health matters online.” Without getting into too many details of the study (available in all its statistical glory here), basically it shows that many people (as many as 30-40%) have searched online for a symptom they have (like a headache) and have escalated it reach the conclusion that they have a serious condition (like a brain tumor). 

This headache/brain tumor connection in particular seemed to be fairly popular, as it was one area in which the study focused. The reason why so many people reach the conclusion that they have serious conditions is because online searches aren’t filtered in any way. You receive the results ranked by algorithms that decide what is most relevant. However, no search engine today is smart enough to reliably make the assessment that, while you may be searching for X, you really should be searching for Y. They also can’t determine the most likely answer to your question (i.e., what is causing my headache?) though they certainly try.

The incidence of brain tumors is 15 to 20 cases per 100,000 people or 0.00015%. Pretty small odds. You’re almost certain to have every other condition statistically speaking before you get to a brain tumor. However, a search engine doesn’t put all this together. There isn’t a feature that allows the search engine to say, “Hey, pal, I know you’re thinking your headache is a brain tumor because I see the pages you selected from the search results, but I thought you should know that you’re odds of dying in a car accident this year are 1 in 6500, so you should start wearing a seatbelt instead of worrying about this. Oh yeah, your headache is most likely caused by the six tequila shots you had last night.”

So, where can healthcare companies help this? While developing a super intelligent search engine is probably out of the question with today’s technology (I hope), it would not be difficult to create a simple algorithm that checks your symptoms and suggests a handful of possible “diseases” that might be causing it. WebMD has taken a good first step with its Symptom Checker, but it’s got a long way to go. During my session where I told the Checker that I had a headache, it presented me with some possible options that, while not including a brain tumor, did include “Aseptic Meningitis” and “Botox Injection.” Check out my partial results:

So, the question is: does this reduce the chance of cyberchonria or increase the risk? While serious diseases like brain cancer are missing, there are still a lot of highly unlikely diseases still included. The list of candidates is in no particular order and you’re left to decide what is most likely the cause of your symptoms. How much additional effort would it take to include the relative risk of each of these conditions? That is, add an additional column that has the most likely cause first (with a relative risk of 1) and then followed by the next most likely with a smaller relative risk. Immediately, you’ve helped people know that it’s really unlikely that they have Aseptic Meningitis compared to a tension headache. The Web MD tool only makes matters worse.

Valuable applications can help educate and give patients and their caregivers the right information at the right time. Far too many online tools offer no meaningful segmentation in an effort to try to cater to everyone. Basic marketing principles tell you that you can’t be everything to everyone, so pick something and own that. Be the resource for headache pain and help people make a real differential diagnosis instead of allowing them to search and search only to find that they have a brain tumor. When they figure out that you’ve got a brain tumor, they’re probably going to call their doctor. How much cost do these emergency visits to physicians cost our system each year? How about the tests that are basically only to calm them down and protect the doctor from a malpractice suit? Healthcare companies have an obligation to educate patients not just on their products, but also the category, competitive products, and overall lifestyle issues that will prevent them from needing their products in the first place. I know, not popular in the boardroom, but essential to long term success.

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