Dr Google

Is there anything that Google can't do?

An article in the NY Times ("Google Uses Searches to Track Flu's Spread") by Miguel Helft reports that Google may be able to detect outbreaks of influenza up to two weeks earlier than the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). According to Google, people who have the symptoms of the flu search for terms such as muscle aches and flu on the search engine, and data-mining of these searches can help pinpoint outbreaks in advance.

There are several alarming items that can be derived from this report.

• Google is faster at reporting medical events, epecially outbreaks, than the CDC. Maybe we should not be suprised by this since the CDC is a government agency, but one has to wonder what is in this for Google. After all, Google is a for-profit (and big profits!) business, and we may want to be careful about turning over reporting to a private company.
• People search the internet before seeing their doctors. We all knew that this was the case, and we have all done it. Who wants to sit in a doctor's office for 3-4 hours when they are sick? But this also means that people are using Google as their primary first source of medical information. Anyone who lives on the web knows the amount of garbage that exists in cyberspace.
  

There is also some good news from this study.

• We all know that the government is not known for its ability to respond rapidly. The use of the studies by both Google and Yahoo! may help develop a more rapid response plan. Maybe we don't need it for influenza, but other outbreaks, such as SARS and Avian flu, may require a faster response time than the CDC can currently supply.
  

What would be interesting is if Google informed the medical community on where these people were going to get their information on the web. Is it a reliable source, such as WebMD, or is it Bob's Influenza Shop? Maybe then the medical community can start to use the web effectively to deliver useful information to the public.