A few days ago, I asked if the Mayo clinic was exercising any kind of quality control over Google health care search results, which are reportedly now part of a joint venture between the two companies. As noted on the official Google Blog:
All of the gathered facts represent real-life clinical knowledge from these doctors and high-quality medical sources across the web, and the information has been checked by medical doctors at Google and the Mayo Clinic for accuracy.
Following that post, E-Patient Dave deBronkart offered a remarkable comment that dramatically expanded on my points. He noted:
Something is very wrong here, and after 15 minutes of digging, so far it smells to me like Google is playing fast and loose with the Mayo name. It almost seems willful to me, because Google is VERY conscious (at an expert level) of the power of what people see first.
The wording "checked by Mayo" is fishy - as you say, it doesn't stipulate what that means, and as I say, Google is fully aware of the power of what meets a reader's eyes first.
Today over on Twitter, Elin Silveous (@ElinSilveous) pointed out another serious misrepresentation with regard to Multiple Sclerosis. Posting a screen shot (like that seen here) from her Google search, she noted:
More questionable Google health search: MS 200,000-3 Million U.S. cases/year. Not!
I did a little research and reviewed the National MS Society website, where I found the following answer after the question, "How many people have MS?"
More than 2.3 million people are affected by MS worldwide (my emphasis.)
Veronica Combs (@vmcombs) watching this tweet fest, responded:
Interesting. But I suspect Google's motive is to increase targeted ad opps, not educate consumers.
Well, maybe so. But this issue here really isn't Google, is it? It is that Mayo Clinic is allowing its name and reputation to be used in a manner inconsistent with the high standard of medical knowledge and care for which it is rightly known. The search clearly says, "Sources: Mayo Clinic and others." Mayo's business deal with Google gets it top billing on all these millions of searches. Google, in turn, gets the imprimatur of the Mayo name.
The question remains: What's up? Who's in charge of this over at Mayo? Why are they letting this happen?
All of the gathered facts represent real-life clinical knowledge from these doctors and high-quality medical sources across the web, and the information has been checked by medical doctors at Google and the Mayo Clinic for accuracy.
Following that post, E-Patient Dave deBronkart offered a remarkable comment that dramatically expanded on my points. He noted:
Something is very wrong here, and after 15 minutes of digging, so far it smells to me like Google is playing fast and loose with the Mayo name. It almost seems willful to me, because Google is VERY conscious (at an expert level) of the power of what people see first.
The wording "checked by Mayo" is fishy - as you say, it doesn't stipulate what that means, and as I say, Google is fully aware of the power of what meets a reader's eyes first.
More questionable Google health search: MS 200,000-3 Million U.S. cases/year. Not!
I did a little research and reviewed the National MS Society website, where I found the following answer after the question, "How many people have MS?"
More than 2.3 million people are affected by MS worldwide (my emphasis.)
Veronica Combs (@vmcombs) watching this tweet fest, responded:
Interesting. But I suspect Google's motive is to increase targeted ad opps, not educate consumers.
Well, maybe so. But this issue here really isn't Google, is it? It is that Mayo Clinic is allowing its name and reputation to be used in a manner inconsistent with the high standard of medical knowledge and care for which it is rightly known. The search clearly says, "Sources: Mayo Clinic and others." Mayo's business deal with Google gets it top billing on all these millions of searches. Google, in turn, gets the imprimatur of the Mayo name.
The question remains: What's up? Who's in charge of this over at Mayo? Why are they letting this happen?