Create an automatic differential diagnosis list with Google Squared

"Google Squared is a search tool that helps you quickly build a collection of facts from the Web for any topic you specify. Facts about your topic are organized as a table of items and attributes (we call them "Squares" for fun). Customize these Squares to see just the items and attributes you're interested in. See the websites that served as sources for the information in your Square. Save and share Squares with others."

Nobody should use Google as a substitute for their doctor. Keeping this in mind, the search engines are evolving (Google, Bing and others) and can be interesting educational tools. See a few examples below:



Differential diagnosis of chest pain. Click here to see my shared "square."

The automatically generated list of differential diagnoses is incomplete and somewhat inaccurate (as expected). However, the concept is interesting and you can edit the list to remove erroneous entries and add new ones.



Google Squared differential diagnosis of shortness of breath, I added a CXR column. Click here to see my shared "square."

Medical educators can build their own "squares" and share them with residents and students. They can use the fields pre-populated with data by Google or create their own.

According to Google, "this technology is by no means perfect. That's why we designed Google Squared to be conversational, enabling you to respond to the initial result and get a better answer. If there's another row or column you'd like to see, you can add it and Google Squared will automatically attempt to fetch and fill in the relevant facts for you. As you remove rows and columns you don't like, Google Squared will get a fresh idea of what you're interested in and suggest new rows and columns to add. See it in action in the video below."



References:
Google Squared Live. Google Operating System.
Google Squared Is Live. Blogoscoped.
Square your search results with Google Squared. Google.
Topics Discussed During the Internal Medicine Rotation at Cleveland Clinic in May 2008
Topics Discussed During the Medicine Consult Service Rotation at Cleveland Clinic in April 2008
Using a Blog to Build an Educational Portfolio. CasesBlog, 1/2007.

Related:
Google Squared: quality improvements, sorting and exporting. Google Blog, 2009.

Updated: 10/09/2009