Google Shows Concern For Health Of Indian People

Google launches a feature for Indians to gather healthcare information and take precautionary measures

The latest move by Google in India might help extend the reach to medical details amongst a large number of people. The organization included healthcare details in its own knowledge graph in the United States in 2015, to let people easily gather quick details to respond to concerns or symptoms via its search engine. Currently, the feature is heading to India.

Google , which runs two most visited webpages of India, revealed Alexa, will currently serve users of Google’s major search engine (on every platform) and its search applications for Android and iOS with data regarding 400 healthcare conditions on Hindi and English, when they conduct a research for a symptom or disease.

The cards include pictures and can be downloaded as Portable Document Formats (PDFs), which can be passed easily to anyone else, perhaps a friend or family member. The organization said it would serve versions of the health-friendly cards if a user avails a limited connection to the internet, as can be experienced in countries such as India.

Why is the organization doing this? With 1 in 20 health-related searches, the company is interested in helping users to attain vast reach to details – although it concerns many that the “search results are not intended as medical advice.”

The tech feature is currently offered in the United States – where the technology company collaborated with Mayo Clinic to fact find its answers – and in Brazil few weeks earlier. In India, the company tied up with Columbia Asia and Apollo Hospitals on the healthcare content, while it had a visit to a clinic in the Indian city, Ballabgarh – only under 40km away from New Delhi – in 2015 to learn more regarding how it could prove to be helpful for medical professionals at ground level.

The move by the organization is in line with an increasing number of new emerging businesses dedicated to democratize healthcare in the country, where it is claimed that at most 97% of people are unable to extend reach to basic surgical coverage.

The medical information portal, Practo, signed a $90 million investment deal in 2015, including the Google’s venture capital fund, Google Capital, while its close competitor ‘Lybrate’ raised a sum of $10 million led by well-known hedge fund manager Tiger Global.

These two companies have focused on offering reliable details to their users, who can also be provided with more specified feedback (and, if needed, appointments) with certified doctors. The Indian healthcare push of Google does not go to that extent, but with it being visible, a seemingly small measure could even offer better reach to details and persuade people in the country to be more keenly interested in their health.