Using Search Volume for Surveillance of Medication Prescribing

Authors

  • Jacob E. Simmering University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
  • Linnea A. Polgreen University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
  • Philip M. Polgreen University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v5i1.4423

Abstract

Over the past five years, the potential for web search volume to provide insight into the present has become increasingly apparently. To date, much of these methods have focused on syndromic keywords and are not directly suitable for surveillance of less common or highly variable diseases. The more unique mapping between drug therapy had disease provides a potential workout this problem. We demonstrate the high degree of correlation between search volume and drug utilization and apply this method of keyword generation to modeling drug utilization, patent expirations and TB incidence in the US.

Author Biography

Jacob E. Simmering, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Jacob Simmering is a doctoral student in Pharmacutical Socioeconomics in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Iowa. He received his BA from Grinnell College. He works with Linnea and Phil Polgreen on using novel data streams for pharmacovigilance and externalities of well-child care.

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Published

2013-03-23

How to Cite

Simmering, J. E., Polgreen, L. A., & Polgreen, P. M. (2013). Using Search Volume for Surveillance of Medication Prescribing. Online Journal of Public Health Informatics, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.5210/ojphi.v5i1.4423

Issue

Section

Poster Presentations