May
Dr. Karl Kochendorfer makes a compelling case for federated search in the healthcare industry. As a family physician and leader in the effort to connect healthcare workers to the information they need, Dr. Kochendorfer acknowledges what those of us in the federated search world already know - Google and the surface web contain so little of the critical information your doctor and his staff need to support important medical decision-making.
Dr. Kochendorfer delivered a TEDX talk in April: “Seek and Ye Shall Find,” explaining the problem and solution:
Some highlights from the talk:
- There are 3 billion terabytes of information out there.
- There are 700,000 articles added to the medical literature every year.
- Information overload was described 140 years ago by a German surgeon: “It has become increasingly difficult to keep abreast of the reports which accumulate day after day … one suffocates through exposure to the massive body of rapidly growing information.”
- With better search tools, 275 million improved decisions could be made.
- Clinicians spend 1/3 of their time looking for information.
And, the most compelling reason to get federated search into healthcare is the sobering thought by Dr. Kochendorfer that doctors are now starting to use Wikipedia to get answers to their questions instead of the best evidence-based sources out there just because Wikipedia is so easy for them to use. Scary.
