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Well, at least Google tries. We have to give them credit for that, and for this very first step — which I honestly hope is just that (as others have suggested giving Google the benefit of the doubt) — it’s a doosey. They’ve gone and created an advisory council to help guide them in their thinking in health.

But in a very traditional, Big-Company-Hey-Maybe-a-Little-Evil-Won’t-Hurt-Us way, they didn’t fill such a council with patients and patient advocates. Instead, they filled it with doctors and doctor insiders (and, of course, a representative of Wal-Mart!), because who better to help Google figure out health than docs?!

Gee, I dunno. How about the people who’ve been the unhappy recipients of such a system for the past 3 or 4 decades?

Sandy over at Junk Food Science has some immediate concerns about the road this leads Google down, namely one of censorship and not helping people find all health information:

Screening out “irrelevant” and “unhelpful” information? That sounds like a euphemism for censorship.

I also blogged about the Google Goof on World of Psychology.

A for effort, D for implementation.

 

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John M. Grohol, Psy.D.

John M. Grohol, Psy.D. is one of the pioneers in online mental health and support groups, getting his start on the Internet in 1992 with depression support groups and advocacy efforts. He is a writer, researcher, and the publisher & founder of the Internet's leading mental health and psychology network, Psych Central, a founding corporate member of the Society for Participatory Medicine. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of Computers in Human Behavior and does e-health consulting in his spare time. Dr. Grohol is a founding member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine, and is also a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists.

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