Google Flu Trends Useful But Not Perfect Say Researchers
Written by Jamie Stowe | Wednesday, 26 May 2010 | There is 1 comment
with some degree of accuracy where the flu outbreak clusters were located
The search engine Google proved to be extremely useful when the swine flu pandemic broke out in different parts of the world. By monitoring the number of times that certain flu related queries were put into the Google search engine it was possible to work out with some degree of accuracy exactly where the flu outbreak clusters were located.
Google who made the information public using an application called Google Flu Trends were commended for their initiative in helping health officials around the world prepare for large numbers of sick people and also to know where to move stocks of medications.
A study done by the University of Washington did say however that while Google Flu Trends was still a useful monitoring tool for influenza outbreak patterns it was not 100 percent accurate. In fact when compared to the United States national surveillance done by the Centers for Disease Control which used data from laboratory confirmed influenza infections it was seen to be is 25% less accurate.
The value of Google Flu Trends is that it gives up to date and immediate information about likely flu outbreaks without having to undergo the laborious process of getting results confirmed by laboratories. Google Flu Trends should be seen as a rough but immediate guide to influenza rates which could prove invaluable especially when speed is of the essence.
A Google spokesman Mr. Jamie Yood was quite open about the possible flaws in the data from Google Flu Trends and said that it should be “by no means a replacement of traditional surveillance systems”.
Professor Justin Ortiz who was the lead author of the study at the University of Washington said that Google Flu Trends was “an excellent public health service” due to the fact that it provided “nationwide influenza activity data in a cheap and timely manner”.
It is important also to remember that the number of search terms related to influenza could be also linked to news items and media reports in particular areas which could skew the figures.
