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Beyond Topical Relevance: Studying Understandability and Reliability in Consumer Health Search

Nowadays people rely on search engines to explore, understand and manage their health. A recent study from Pew Internet states that one in each three adult American Internet users have used the Internet as a diagnosis tool. Retrieving incorrect or unclear health information poses high risks as people may dismiss serious symptoms, use inappropriate treatments or escalate their health concerns about common symptomatology. A number of studies have shown that the average user experiences difficulty in understanding the content of a large portion of the results retrieved by current search engine technology. Other studies have examined how poor the quality of health information on the web can be. In the context of consumer (non-experts) health search, search engines should not only retrieve relevant information, but also promote information that is understandable by the user and that is reliable/trustable and verified. The focus of my Ph.D. is to go beyond topical relevance and study understandability and reliability as two important facets of relevance that must be incorporated into search systems to increase user satisfaction, especially in the context of consumer health search.