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ClinicalTrials.gov record
Completed Not applicable Interventional

Google Health Search Trial

ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT03073746

Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03073746. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.

ClinicalTrials.gov public records Last synced Oct 3, 2026, 8:07 PM EDT

Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.

Official title

Accuracy of Differential Diagnosis From Google Health Search and Impact on Clinical Encounters

Brief summary

Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.

There are large differences in knowledge between patients and healthcare providers (i.e. physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners), and there is a strong interest on the part of both industry and academia to reduce the gap in knowledge between patients and healthcare providers. Currently, about 1 in 20 searches on Google are health related. Among internet users, 72% reported searching for health information, and among persons who use mobile phones, 31% of cell phone users and 52% of smartphone users have looked up health or medical information. Oftentimes, patients will search on Google or other search engines in order to find health conditions that explain their symptoms prior to visiting their healthcare provider. With the launch of Google's new health search tools for mobile devices (i.e. smartphones, tablets, etc.) it is important to understand how patients use these search platforms and what their effects are on clinical encounters. The main objective of this study is to understand the accuracy of differential diagnoses generated by Google searching; the investigators hypothesize that searching on Google using a tablet or mobile device will be more accurate than not using any search tool, and that the new health search experience will improve accuracy over the standard search platform.

Study identification

NCT ID
NCT03073746
Recruitment status
Completed
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Not applicable
Lead sponsor
Johns Hopkins University
Other
Enrollment
300 participants

Conditions and interventions

Interventions

Other

Eligibility (public fields only)

Age range
18 Years and older
Sex
All
Healthy volunteers
Healthy volunteers not accepted

This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.

Study timeline

Start date
Sep 7, 2016 (Actual)
Primary completion
Aug 9, 2017 (Actual)
Completion
Aug 15, 2017 (Actual)
Last update posted
Apr 16, 2019

2016 – 2017

United States locations

U.S. sites
2
U.S. states
1
U.S. cities
1
Facility City State ZIP Site status
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Baltimore Maryland 21224 —
Johns Hopkins Hospital Baltimore Maryland 21287 —

Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.

About this trial record page

What this page shows
Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03073746, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
What this page does not do
No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
Where the data comes from
Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
Last refresh
Last update posted Apr 16, 2019 · Synced Oct 3, 2026

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Open the official record

The complete public registry record, listed eligibility criteria, and available contact information for NCT03073746 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.

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