[Research article] Learning about health and medicine from Internet data

From the 2 February 2015 Microsoft research summary

urveys show that around 70% of US Internet users consult the Internet when they require medical information. People seek this information using both traditional search engines and via social media. The information created using the search process offers an unprecedented opportunity for applications to monitor and improve the quality of life of people with a variety of medical conditions. In recent years, research in this area has addressed public-health questions such as the effect of media on development of anorexia, developed tools for measuring influenza rates and assessing drug safety, and examined the effects of health information on individual wellbeing. This tutorial will show how Internet data can facilitate medical research, providing an overview of the state-of-the-art in this area. During the tutorial we will discuss the information which can be gleaned from a variety of Internet data sources, including social media, search engines, and specialized medical websites. We will provide an overview of analysis methods used in recent literature, and show how results can be evaluated using publicly-available health information and online experimentation. Finally, we will discuss ethical and privacy issues and possible technological solutions. This tutorial is intended for researchers of user generated content who are interested in applying their knowledge to improve health and medicine.

Poor-quality weight loss advice often appears first in an online search — ScienceDaily

From the 14 November 2014 item at ScienceDaily

Source:Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health

Summary:More than 40 percent of U.S. Internet users use online search engines to seek guidance on weight loss and physical activity. A new study finds that high-quality weight loss information often appears after the first page of search engine results.

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Given that obesity affects one-third of Americans, it is not surprising that more than 40 percent of U.S. Internet users use online search engines to seek guidance on weight loss and physical activity. A new study in the American Journal of Public Health finds that online searchers often initially encounter poor-quality weight loss information.

The study reveals that the first page of results, using a search engine like Google, is likely to display less reliable sites instead of more comprehensive, high-quality sites, and includes sponsored content that makes unrealistic weight loss promises.

..

“Federal agencies, academic institutions and medical organizations need to work a lot harder at search engine optimization to get their links on top of searches,” Modave added. “Consumers need to be more critical when reading online. Ideally, they could read original studies from which many stories are written but, of course, that’s not realistic for most people.”

 

Related Resources

• Evaluating Health Information (Links at Health Resources for all, edited by Janice Flahiff)
• Searching the Internet (tutorial by the University of Michigan)

 

Related articles

• Get Ahead of Google with Insight into Semiotics – Moz
• Dreaming Of Search Engines
• Why you shouldn’t trust the top weight loss search results
• Want to Lose Weight? Google Results Could Make You Fat
• Different Patterns Of Search Engine Optimization SEO Services To Capitalize On
• When to Stop SEO

[Journal Article] Search engines cannot diagnose through symptom searching – only 14% accuracy

Ever enter your symptoms into a search engine (as Google) to find what was the cause? And bring the results to your health care provider?  Believe that search engines can correctly diagnose your symptoms?
A  medical researcher not only was thinking along these  lines. He also set up a system to see if search engines could diagnose symptoms accurately.

The results were published in a scientific paper.**

Here are some remarks from medical librarians at their discussion group.

• They don’t address the problem with these search engines of bias: Google,
  Bing, track what you’ve searched on, they aren’t ‘anonymous’ engines, thus
  biasing the results. A different computer, with different previous user
  will give different results with these search engines. Flawed article,
  in my opinion. Too bad, it is interesting.

• This article is very interesting. While it is about validating the instrument for analyzing the webpages, they found that only 14% of the website gave a correct diagnosis. Seventy percent came up with the diagnosis as part of a differential. It sort of scares me that many medical students and other healthcare students might use search engines to find differentials. One implication is that patients who bring in webpages may actually hold the appropriate differential in their internet printout. Physicians might consider that information. The article is NOT an open access journal. The abstract does not discuss the findings of accuracy since they were testing the scoring system.

My thoughts? Familydoctor.org (American Academy of Family Physicians) has great advice
Our symptom checker flowcharts allow you to easily track your symptoms and come to a possible diagnosis.
Remember,  be sure to consult with you doctor if you feel you have a serious medical problem.

As a medical librarian, we counsel people to use any information they find as a resource when consulting with their health care provider. Information on the internet may be outdated, flawed, and sometimes even wrong.
Also, the health care providers views you as a whole person, not just a narrow set of symptoms.  They use not only your symptoms, but other factors as health history, current and past treatments, and environmental factors to work toward a treatment plan.

Related Resources

   Online symptom checkers (Standford Health System)

**  Abstract from PubMed.
Full text of article not available online for free.
Might be available for free or low cost at a local public, medical, or academic libary.
Call ahead and ask for a reference librarian.
Many medical and academic libraries offer some help to the public.

Int J Med Inform. 2014 Feb;83(2):131-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2013.11.002. Epub 2013 Nov 19.

The accuracy of Internet search engines to predict diagnoses from symptoms can be assessed with a validated scoring system.

Shenker BS.

Author information

• Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Family Medicine Residency at CentraState, United States. Electronic address: bshenker@centrastate.com.

Abstract

PURPOSE:To validate a scoring system that evaluates the ability of Internet search engines to correctly predict diagnoses when symptoms are used as search terms.METHODS:We developed a five point scoring system to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Internet search engines. We identified twenty diagnoses common to a primary care setting to validate the scoring system. One investigator entered the symptoms for each diagnosis into three Internet search engines (Google, Bing, and Ask) and saved the first five webpages from each search. Other investigators reviewed the webpages and assigned a diagnostic accuracy score. They rescored a random sample of webpages two weeks later. To validate the five point scoring system, we calculated convergent validity and test-retest reliability using Kendall’s W and Spearman’s rho, respectively. We used the Kruskal-Wallis test to look for differences in accuracy scores for the three Internet search engines.RESULTS:A total of 600 webpages were reviewed. Kendall’s W for the raters was 0.71 (p<0.0001). Spearman’s rho for test-retest reliability was 0.72 (p<0.0001). There was no difference in scores based on Internet search engine. We found a significant difference in scores based on the webpage’s order on the Internet search engine webpage (p=0.007). Pairwise comparisons revealed higher scores in the first webpages vs. the fourth (corr p=0.009) and fifth (corr p=0.017). However, this significance was lost when creating composite scores.CONCLUSIONS:The five point scoring system to assess diagnostic accuracy of Internet search engines is a valid and reliable instrument. The scoring system may be used in future Internet research.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.