Google has partnered with Apollo Hospitals and Columbia Asia Hospitals to curate the content carefully. With expert reviews, these Health Cards contain information like symptoms, details about how common the health condition is, the age categories that are generally affected by it, the seriousness of the condition and whether it is contagious or not.
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India Third Country To Get Google Search Health Cards
Google announced that India is the third country to get these Health Cards in the Knowledge Graph – the other two countries being the USA and Brazil. The information specifically designed for India – cards will be available in Hindi and English.
Additionally, for those on slower connections, Google will load a lighter version of Health Cards. This is inline with Google’s other measures to make the internet experience faster – the company already loads a lighter version of Google Search for users on slower connections. Apart from that, websites using Google Weblight also display text-only versions when readers are on slow connections. Health Cards will be available for users using the Google App on iOS and Android. Additionally, mobile users and desktop users will also be able to access cards. “Around the world, health conditions are among the most important things that people ask Google about. In fact, one in 20 searches are for health-related information,” explained Prem Ramaswami, Senior Product Manager at Google. “We worked closely with a team of local and international doctors to curate and validate this information including Apollo Hospitals and the Columbia Asia Hospitals here in India. During product development we also consulted the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and ASHAs who are community health workers to ensure the information on the cards is useful and accessible.” “Apollo Hospitals is very proud to be working with Google on this initiative. Apollo Hospitals has a long history of using technology for the benefit of patients. We’re looking forward to building on this track record and being able to provide quality healthcare information to potentially a billion Indians,” Ms Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited said. Google added that while these Health Cards contain information reviewed by experts, users should not consider this as medical advice. Users are advised to consult a doctor.
