Internet-Based Surveillance Models Show Promise in Detecting Infectious Disease Outbreaks

Internet-based surveillance, such as mining Google searches, can detect outbreaks of infectious diseases as much as two weeks earlier than traditional surveillance methods, according to a research review published in The Lancet Infections Diseases. Researchers said the search-based models are more effective than traditional tracking because of their ability to capture people engaging in self-treatment.

• "Data Mining Google May Help Predict Disease Outbreaks" (Nauert, Psych Central News, 1/21).
• "Predicting Epidemics With Internet Search Data" (Jacobs, Pacific Standard, 1/21).