Google MD project 10^100

google 10 to the 100th submission
To create a free web-based interactive health tool, GoogleMD, that will assist people in problem solving by providing open source information about common health issues.
GoogleMD will act as the initial consultation for people concerned about physical symptoms. Using algorithms developed by medical professionals, it will ask users a series of questions either over the internet, phone or text message, identifying the severity of the symptoms and whether or not they require immediate medical attention. Each answer will decide the next question, until the participant completes one path on the algorithm. Diagnosed, the patient will have to make an "MD", or Medical Decision, about whether to pursue a medical consultation or at home treatment. At home treatments could range from over-the-counter pharmaceuticals to rest, exercise or dietary change.

Someone might go to GoogleMD if their child experiences diarrhea in the middle of the night. By asking a set of clarifying questions such as "Blood in the stool?" "Fever? If yes, how high?" GoogleMD would be able to help the parent decide whether or not to take the child to a doctor.

To supplement online or over-the-phone interactions, GoogleMD would employ patient advocates to help confused patients decide what their next step should be, where and how to seek treatment, and if need be, walk them through the algorithmic questions. They would record complaints or confusions users bring up, and relay these to the technology team to continuously updgrade GoogleMD.

At its core, GoogleMD seeks free, constant, convenient access to medical knowledge for the largest audience it can reach, establishing itself as a virtual health center where both experts and patients can contribute their experience to improve the base of medical knowledge and the way it is presented. Staff will organize and validate the wiki-style contributions, helping GoogleMD evolve.
GoogleMD could reduce the high cost of unnecessary Emergency Room visits, reinforce the value of community health and patient advocate centers, and quell patients' anxieties as it delivers the necessary information for them to make informed decisions regarding their health.

By providing accessible and trustworthy medical information, GoogleMD would align patients and health care providers to make informed decisions regarding their care. GoogleMD will sponsor a computer generated dialogue that tracks patient inputs and adds data to electronic health records. It would change the top-down hierarchy of health care into a more collaborative, mutually beneficial, accessible process.

GoogleMD will deliver aid through computers and via more than four billion wireless phone connections worldwide, translating inaccessible medical terminology into a structured set of questions tailored to fit the user's language and level of education. Employing text messaging or automated response technology over the phone, GoogleMD could serve illiterate and remote populations.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google
• competition
• project
• medicine
• informatics
• health
• 10
• to
• the
• 100th
• 10^100
• innovation
• global