Google as an Operating System for Healthcare Services

What role do search engines such as Google play in the lives of people who frequent the websphere? Here is the link to an article that suggests that Google functions as an operating system in the advertising world and below is an excerpt from the article (boldface emphasis mine):

Traditional media companies are in a persistent state of confusion when it comes to Google. The question that keeps these media executives up at night is... [whether] Google a friend or a foe?...Simply put, Google is building what is essentially an operating system (”OS”) for advertising…that will work across all media. Just like Microsoft’s Windows (or any other OS) manages all the hardware and software resources of a computer, Google’s Ad/OS will similarly manage all the critical components of an ad campaign, regardless of media type. But instead of controlling and allocating memory, Google’s Ad/OS will allocate ad budgets… [and] instead of prioritizing system requests, controlling input & output devices, Google’s Ad/OS will enable ad inventory buying & placement.

As noted above, a computer operating system (OS) manages the hardware and software of a computer and an analogy is drawn between and OS and a search engine. Now, separate yourself from the world of computing and think of the search engine as a knowledge broker that one utilizes to help make important life decisions by accessing relevant information on the web. Then carry the concept one step further and think about the value of Google as a knowledge broker for the various decisions we make about our health and how we select healthcare services.

In my view and for the computer-literate component of the population, which is growing by the day, search engines like Google now provide an essential broker function for accessing important health information. Here are just a few examples of why this statement is true:

• Fifty-seven percent of those in people in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US who sought health information in the past 12 months consulted Internet sources (link here).
• Web sites such as HealthGrades (link here) are readily accessible by a Google search and allow healthcare consumers to obtain information about physician and hospital quality.
• Web sites such as ConsumerReports.com (link here) provide links under the heading of Hospital Report Cards to the JCAHO hospital reviews and other similar health-oriented sites.
• Web sites (link here) are also available that provide important information about physicians such as their education, training, specialty, malpractice and disciplinary proceedings relating to them.

Any healthcare consumer with a web browser has access in minutes to healthcare information that would have taken days or even weeks to acquire five years ago, if it could be obtained at all. From a healthcare perspective, this information broker function has greatly improved the chances for all of us obtaining higher quality healthcare services.