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No-one is sure how long Google's tip towards the health information market will continue to generate interest, but an announcement about a new, star-filled "Health Advisory Council" should keep the speculation going, at least for the foreseeable future.
The Council has an enviable list of industry luminaries, with the likes of Dean Ornish, the American College of Physicians' CEO John Tooker, former FDA commissioner David Kessler and former NIH chief Bernadine Healey in its ranks. If, indeed, Google wants to plumb expert minds for advice on what's needed in medical search, it's got a good group to go to here.
To be fair to the dominant search company, it's admitted that the health field is one of the more complex ones it's engaged with. The fact that it's decided it does need this level of advice is therefore a good move.
Of course, it could be that it's just assembled these names as an easy way to give it visible competitive chops in this growing sector of the market, but let's give it the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.
There are caveats to the announcement, however, and many of the initial objections can be found in the comments to Google's own blog posting on the Council. One of them points out, for example, that there isn't (so far) a diabetes specialist on the panel. Since this disease is already near epidemic levels, that's a big omission.
One of the comments I like the best comes from Dean Giustini, a medical librarian and noted critiquer of all things online. Writing on the OM Blog, part of the online journal Open Medicine he's helping to start up, he calls the Google announcement "an insult to health librarians everywhere", with no person from the librarian ranks to be seen anywhere on the new Council.
He makes the case as follows:
Imagine what the American Medical Association (AMA) or the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) (in short, the doctors) would have said had they not been asked to participate? The newly-formed Google Health Advisory Group mostly consists of MDs, with some representation from health provider and consumer groups - but no hospital librarians, no clinical librarians, no consumer health librarians or informationists. In fact, no nurses, no therapists nor technologists. It's a list that surprises by its one-dimensionality, and its errors of omission.
Note to Google: Who do you think provides patient education and materials to consumers? It's nurses. It's health librarians. In the information age, librarians are equal partners in the delivery of health care, in case you haven't noticed. Who do you believe is responsible for delivering information to patients outside of the clinical team? Further, who knows these tools better than health librarians?He has got a point. If Google really is interested in good advice about the medical field then this Council should be broadened substantially, at least to give it the street cred it needs as well as the auspicious glow the current names provide.
As another look into medical search, note the announcement that Healia -- a search engine specifically consumer health search -- has been bought by Meredith Corp., which is finding a growing market in providing health information for its female-oriented publications.
Looks like Meredith sees the appeal of providing online, interactive health services al la Revolution Health. We should only expect more of this stuff.
By Brian Robinson, GHIT Contributing Writer
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