Google has introduced health cards, which can be found as part of the Knowledge Graph. The new feature will provide users with a quick synopsis of a disease, complete with images, symptoms, how critical or contagious the an illness is and which age group gets most affected.
After U.S. and Brazil, India is the third country to access more than 400 health cards of common diseases like dengue and malaria. The cards come in PDF format that users can access through iOS or Android smartphones, tablets and desktops.
In places with poor connectivity or in case of slow Internet speed, a "lighter" version of the document will automatically download, says the Google team. Some health-related searches may also throw up high-quality illustrations from licensed medical illustrators, depending on the conditions.
The Google team has approached some renowned medical units to get their content verified and reviewed, both in English and Hindi, so as to make them more credible for the users.
"[We] worked closely with a team of local and international doctors to curate and validate this information," says Prem Ramaswami, Google's senior product manager for search.
He adds that in India, they worked with Apollo and Columbia Asia hospitals, and consulted with All India Institute of Medical Sciences and with community health workers from ASHA in ensuring that the information on the cards is useful and accessible.
With one in 20 searches being health-related, Ramaswami says the company realizes the growing importance of such quick information, which stemmed from his father-in-law experiencing chest pains and his family typing in the keywords to glean some quick facts and results.
The team will also constantly strives to update the Knowledge Graph with more conditions and useful health tips focused to cater to the Indian population.
However, as a concluding line, he emphasizes that these information cards are not intended as medical advice, but are presented for information purposes only, which should then lead the people towards the right medical direction.
