Dr.G (aka Google Doctor)

[euryd...@gmail.com]

Just finished reading the Google Story while in a climate of medical
exams, a funeral and a visit to the dentist. Not much fun, but the
book kept my brain busy. So busy, in fact, that an idea came to me.

Google is incredibly useful as a data mining tool (I'm beginning to
learn what that means since I started working at SPSS) and I am
starting to understand and imagine what it could do if it could tap
into a large array of data. Say from hospitals... Or medical exams and
their results... Do you see where I'm geting at?

So, to dive straight in: How about a Google Doctor? (Or Dr.G for
short)

You'd type in a few symptoms, possibly get prompted for a few
clarifying questions (based on decision tree algorithm, for instance)
and then directed to a group of possible ailments based on how closely
your symptoms match. Google is already being used to tap into unknown
relationships between genes in our DNA (eg. to identify a
predisposition to a serious illness). It mustn't be too long a stretch
to apply it to generic illnesses & symptoms.

Obviously this would not replace an actual visit to the doctor, but it
could, if combined with a network of users in the spirit of wiki
communities, provide one with the comfort that 3245 other people have
gotten the same cold as him and it'll be gone in 3 days after a big
bout of fever...

So how about it guys? Will you give us Dr.G?