Veracity-Health
A Reliable Pathway to Filter and Navigate the Health Information Landscape
Introduction
The digital age has amplified the challenge of discerning trustworthy online health information. The advent of advanced generative models exacerbates this dilemma with unsourced answers drawn from potentially unreliable sources. On average, an American consults a physician twice annually but spends over 52 hours searching for health insights online. Yet, most retrieved information lacks reliable scientific backing, and social media often promotes dubious products that may harm health.
The digital proliferation extends beyond information consumption to tangible actions impacting health. Americans, driven by online recommendations, frequently resort to purchasing over-the-counter medications at pharmacies, often without proper consultation or understanding of potential interactions. With its influential power, social media sees many influencers, not necessarily medically trained, recommending health products or practices, potentially misleading their large follower bases. Often not vetted for individual health profiles, such purchases and practices can lead to detrimental health outcomes. The pervasive practice of acting on non-personalized online health advice is not just an individual concern but a matter of public health. The risk heightens as the distinction blurs between what is scientifically-backed and what is commercially promoted online.
Problem
In a world inundated with content generated by models, social media, and various platforms, the paramount challenge is organizing, filtering, and extracting information that is not just relevant but also reliable, especially in the sensitive domain of health. Veracity-health.ai is envisioned to address this very need, serving as a conduit for authentic and personalized health information in the digital age.
Opportunity
Veracity-Health focuses on using deep learning methods and LLMs to validate online information (e.g., from websites, and videos...) and solely draws answers from evidence-based scientific articles. The initial product functions as a specialized search engine tailored to health inquiries. Users can pose any health-related question and receive answers exclusively sourced from scientific papers, specifically meta-analyses and randomized clinical trials (RCTs). Additionally, users can submit video or website URLs to the platform for fact-checking, ensuring that they are receiving accurate and trustworthy information.
Based on the same technology, the first prototype also offers individualized healthcare prevention recommendations (from clinical data, lab results, and wearables) on topics such as nutrition, mental well-being, exercise, intimacy, and sleep using the latest machine learning tools.