MPCHS 2016 - 1ST INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MULTI-PERSPECTIVE CONSUMER HEALTH SEARCH (MPCHS)

General search engines are not effective in addressing complex consumer health queries which do not have a single definitive answer (e.g. “can fluoride in drinking water cause bone cancer?”). We use the term “Multi-Perspective Consumer Health Search” (MPCHS) to denote such queries, for which there is “No single Correct Answer”, whereas multiple perspectives (and very often contradictory perspectives) are available on the web regarding the queried information. The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers cross-cutting the fields of web search, data mining and consumer health informatics to identify the unique challenges involved in MPCHS and to propose novel and practical solutions to address these challenges. The workshop will also include an optional technical challenge on MPCHS. We have created a small sample dataset of MPCHS queries, synthesized from real patient questions asked in online health forums. We will be sharing this sample dataset on the workshop website (along with a synthesized example summary) to the potential workshop participants, which they can use for experimental evaluation of their proposed techniques.