OBJECTIVES: The number of people using search engines like Google as a gateway to health information seeking is increasing and it is both relevant and germane to policy makers to understand what these ‘health-seeking priorities’ are so that the insights gathered may potentially guide future decisions on appropriate methods for the dissemination of online health information.  METHODS: A systematic review of the literature from 2000-2014 using a single bibliometric database, PubMed, was conducted and yielded 887 results of which 34 were deemed to be useful and informative on the subject. RESULTS: Consistent with the non-empirical literature on the subject from organizations like The Commonwealth Fund and The Pew Research Center, which have shown that the significant majority of American health seekers prioritize the need for information on a specific disease/medical problem or treatment for a specific disease/medical problem, this review is able to validate that finding and further shed light on some issues that may be of value in considering on a go-forward basis for policy makers. CONCLUSIONS:

Health seekers in the U.S. continue to rely upon the search engines like Google as a starting point when seeking health information. This trend has practical implications around the manner and method in which we adjudicate and accredit online health information and, perhaps more importantly, how we ensure that the use of sophisticated paid search results using proprietary Google algorithms do not skew the information presented to health seekers who may be incapable of distinguishing between high-value and low-value health information.