Adapative 'nowcasting' key to accurate flu data trends using Google search terms
Friday, October 31, 2014 - 04:02
in Health & Medicine
Google search data really can provide a more accurate real time picture of current flu infections, researchers have found. Official reports of influenza infection rates are produced with a delay of at least one week. Yet researchers from Google and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that data on searches for influenza related terms could be used to provide a real time estimate of the number of people with flu infections, with almost no delay.