FindZebra: A Search Engine That Diagnoses Rare Diseases

The Danish researchers behind FindZebra would not be happy about my title as they published a warning on the top of their search engine with the message: “This is a research project to be used only by medical professionals.” This search engine only uses medical databases similarly to SciencerollSearch and named the rare disease correctly after entering the symptoms 67%  of the time, compared to 32% using Google. I think educating both patients and medical professionals about the proper use of search engines and operators would provide even better results. Here is their description. There are close to 7,000 rare diseases recognized by rare disease organizations. We index over 31,000 documents covering rare and genetic diseases from 10 reputable sources. Given the number of rare diseases and rate of publication, we think FindZebra is a good companion for medical professionals.
Source: ScienceRoll - Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Tags: eHealth Medical Search Medicine Medicine 2.0 Web 2.0 Source Type: blogs