garykamen / blog

11-13-08

Google Flu Trends

A new service called “Flu Trends” launched on Google.org a few days ago. This service attempts to predict flu outbreaks by looking at flu-related search queries on Google.com. The data is broken down by State and conveniently displayed on a U.S. map (pictured below).

It will be interesting to see how accurate this really is. If it is, then it will greatly assist public health officials in preparing for regional epidemics. It would also be interesting to know if Google took into account States with a high number of medical and nursing programs. If not, Google might mistakenly report an influenza outbreak in New York City the night before a big exam day.

Flu Trends is Google’s second health-related service. In May it launched Google Health, an online database that lets you securely store and organize your health information in one place. Earlier this month, Medicare began encouraging Arizona seniors to use the service as part of a pilot program meant to streamline and improve healthcare.