Migraines, colon cancer, Covid-19: With one click, people should find essential information on the current scientific status on the government’s official health portal on the Internet. The Ministry of Health is now working with Google on this.
When searching on Google for specific diseases, Internet users have recently found official, verified information from the Federal Ministry of Health in a prominently highlighted information box. The Spahn authority has now started a cooperation with the Internet company. In the box you can see the answers from the national health portal Gesund.bund.de.
Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) said that the corona pandemic also shows how important serious health information is. He expects a boost in awareness for the health portal. «If we’re interested in conveying objective, well-founded, evidence-based information, then it won’t do me any good if we appear in Google at 783,000.» The information service will start with the 160 most common diseases.
Also interesting: Health portals pass on sensitive data
Google gives information from the health portal more space
A link to the info boxes that appear above takes users directly to the article in the health portal. The information comes from the German Cancer Research Center, the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, the Robert Koch Institute or medical societies. The health portal also contains articles on topics such as care and prevention.
Google Central Europe Vice President Philipp Justus said personal or other data would not be shared with the Ministry of Health or other authorities. The offers of the federal health portal would be integrated. Every user can decide whether to go to the portal with a click. «Other than that, no data will be shared with each other.» Google’s usual data protection standards would apply. «Every user can always decide for himself what happens to his data: either keep or delete the search queries, delete individual searches, delete the entire search history.»
Google is used a lot – also when it comes to health
The head of the Ministry of Health, Jens Spahn, explained using the example of the Google search for «migraine»: «In this and after this cooperation, Google knows no more and no less than if you had entered «migraine» before the cooperation.» Google as a whole, he said, it is a fact that the vast majority of Germans use Google every day.
According to Spahn, the corona pandemic also shows the added value for digital healthcare overall beyond the new offer. Many more doctors and patients used online consultation hours. Electronic medical records could also have helped in coping with Covid-19. But now it will start step by step as planned on January 1st.
Also interesting: Procedure and hurdles of a video consultation with the doctor
Spahn announced some innovations. There should be a digital symptom diary, i.e. a web-based offer for doctors and patients with Covid-19 that can replace constant calls.