Health news round up

Google wants to know why users search for health-related information

Google wants to know what you have in mind when you’re searching for health information.

Do you want to know about a headache because you have one or are you just interested? 

To find out, Google has is inviting users to participate in a new survey.

An invitation to participate will appear at the bottom of your search results.

“Statistics gathered in this experiment may also help Google deliver more relevant search results in the future,” write Google Product Manager Dr. Roni Zeiger, MD and Jeremy Ginsberg, a Google software engineer write on the Official Google Blog.

“For example, someone who searches for [arthritis pain] to understand why an aging parent is experiencing joint pain might want to learn about nearby health facilities and potential treatments, whereas somebody who searches for [arthritis pain] because she is doing a research project might want results about how common arthritis is and what its risk factors are. Rather than make educated guesses about how many users are searching because they’re sick, we’re running this experiment to collect real statistics.”

Information gathered for the survey, they write, ”will not be associated with email addresses or other personally identifiable information. Survey data will not be used for advertising — it will only be used to help Google improve health-related search results….”

To learn more: 

• Read Dr Zeiger and Mr. Ginsberg’s blog post, which includes a link to a FAQ page.

Seattle’s former police chief — now U.S. drug czar — calls for end of the “War on Drugs.”

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske and now head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy calls for an end of the U.S.’s War on Drugs. 

Journal reporter Gary Fields writes:

“Mr. Kerlikowske’s comments are a signal that the Obama administration is set to follow a more moderate — and likely more controversial — stance on the nation’s drug problems. Prior administrations talked about pushing treatment and reducing demand while continuing to focus primarily on a tough criminal-justice approach.

The Obama administration is likely to deal with drugs as a matter of public health rather than criminal justice alone, with treatment’s role growing relative to incarceration, Mr. Kerlikowske said.

To learn more:

• Read Gary Field’s article: White House Czar Calls for End to ‘War on Drugs’ (Fee or subscription may be required.)
• Visit the website of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

Keeping U.S. healthcare from going the way of Detroit

Without changes in how we pay health-care providers, “health care could to the way of Detroit,” writes Dr. Eric Larson, executive director of the Group Health Center for Health Studies in an op-ed piece in today’s Seattle Times.

To control soaring health-care costs, which are now eats up 18 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, health-care reform needs to promote a “robust primary-care-based system and coordinated management of chronic illness” and “payment and finance reforms to reduce inflationary market forces”, Dr. Larson argues.

Health care reform needs “an honest examination of how the system is structured and financed — including how providers are reimbursed,” he writes.

To learn more:

• Read Eric Larson’s op-ed piced: Health-care reform needn’t be a car wreck.

Tags: Addiction, Drug Policy, Google, Health Insurance, Health-care Reform, Healthcare Policy, Insurance, Internet

Category: Addiction, Drug Abuse, Health Insurance, Health-care Policy, Insurance, Substance Abuse