New Medical Calculators in Wolfram|Alpha

The most fundamental mission of Wolfram|Alpha is to be the internet’s hub for all things computable. With this in mind, our medical data team has been combing through peer-reviewed journals, population-based surveys, and credible online health calculators to bring you the most complete, up-to-date, and easy-to-use library of medical calculations available anywhere on the web. This endeavor has been ongoing since the launch of Wolfram|Alpha more than a year ago, and can be demonstrated through queries such as “heart disease risk”, “male age 27, 175 lbs”, or “basal metabolic rate”.

Over the past couple of months, we have worked to implement over 20 new equations. For example, hematocrit levels outside the normal range are indicative of any number of health concerns ranging from dehydration to kidney disease. In circumstances where estimates of hematocrit are in need and only certain parameters are known, Wolfram|Alpha can be used to fill in the gaps and assess whether the estimated value falls within the normal range, given a number of personal attributes such as weight, height, sex, or age:

Calcium in the blood is also a very important indicator of various health conditions, including complications of various types of wounds, hyperparathyroidism, and even osteosclerosis. Given total calcium and serum protein levels, Wolfram|Alpha can estimate the blood concentration of unbound ionized versus protein-bound serum calcium:

Additionally, Wolfram|Alpha will plot the input or predicted values of blood constituents within custom distributions weighted for the U.S. population:

Lastly, renal function is very important to the general health of all patients of all ages. Accordingly, if there is any indication of renal impairment, it is common for physicians to measure creatinine clearance rate. There are many methods to estimate creatinine clearance, but the more typical computations use serum creatinine, urine creatinine, and the total amount of excreted creatinine within the urine over a specified collection time. Using these dimensions, Wolfram|Alpha can compute an estimate of creatinine clearance, as well as offer an approximation of possible kidney disease stage based on standards used by the National Kidney Foundation:

The equations highlighted above make up a small sample of many already available within Wolfram|Alpha. Though we have devoted a great deal of resources toward finding and sorting through all the health and medical calculations available, there is no doubt that we could benefit from the insight of outside health care professionals. Accordingly, it is important that you provide us with feedback so we can seek out the equations you desire. Also, if there are equations you know of, but that we are missing, let us know and we will add them.