Crowdsourced Health: How What You Do on the Internet Will Improve Medicine

by Senior Researcher Elad Yom-Tov

How data from our health-related Internet searches can lead to discoveries about diseases and symptoms and help patients deal with diagnoses. Most of us have gone online to search for information about health. What are the symptoms of a migraine? How effective is this drug? Where can I find more resources for cancer patients? Could I have an STD? Am I fat? A Pew survey reports more than 80 percent of American Internet users have logged on to ask questions like these. But what if the digital traces left by our searches could show doctors and medical researchers something new and interesting? What if the data generated by our searches could reveal information about health that would be difficult to gather in other ways? In this book, Elad Yom-Tov argues that Internet data could change the way medical research is done, supplementing traditional tools to provide insights not otherwise available. He describes how studies of Internet searches have, among other things, already helped researchers track to side effects of prescription drugs, to understand the information needs of cancer patients and their families, and to recognize some of the causes of anorexia. Yom-Tov shows that the information collected can benefit humanity without sacrificing individual privacy. He explains why people go to the Internet with health questions; for one thing, it seems to be a safe place to ask anonymously about such matters as obesity, sex, and pregnancy. He describes in detrimental effects of "pro-anorexia" online content; tells how computer scientists can scour search engine data to improve public health by, for example, identifying risk factors for disease and centers of contagion; and tells how analyses of how people deal with upsetting diagnoses help doctors to treat patients and patients to understand their conditions.

Genres: Health Care

160 pages, Hardcover

Published March 18, 2016

Reviews

[铭 杰 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A structured look at how Big Data can be used to analyse medical information (direct and indirect) that we post on the internet and how it can complement clinical data in ways we've never known before. The anonymity of the internet encourages people to share more sensitive information about taboo topics or information that normally isn't reported to doctors (because they may not be very serious or patients are uncomfortable talking to doctors about them).

The book is divided into chapters based on the possible applications of analyzing internet medical data on topics such as Anorexia, drug approval, self diagnosis and personalized medicine. A good read for doctors and entrepreneurs wanting to make use of technology to provide better healthcare services or products to patients in the future.

[Tamar Sidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read by everyone

A thought provoking while an extremely easy read. Relevant to anyone who uses the internet and curious about it’s potential to influence our health and how medical research can be conducted.
Super interesting and engaging.

[Ellen Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5