[Ict4devwg] Infodemiology and Infoveillance: Framework for an Emerging Set of Public Health Informatics Methods

[Vern Weitzel]

Subject: 	[EQ] Infodemiology and Infoveillance: Framework for an
Emerging Set of Public Health Informatics Methods
Date: 	Tue, 2 Jun 2009 10:00:39 -0400
From: 	Ruggiero, Mrs. Ana Lucia (WDC) <ruglucia at PAHO.ORG>
Reply-To: 	Equity, Health & Human Development <EQUIDAD at LISTSERV.PAHO.ORG>
To: 	EQUIDAD at LISTSERV.PAHO.ORG

*Infodemiology and Infoveillance:
Framework for an Emerging Set of Public Health Informatics
Methods to Analyze Search, Communication and Publication Behavior on the
Internet*



Gunther Eysenbach1,2, MD, MPH

1Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, University Health Network,
Toronto, Canada

2Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, University of
Toronto, Toronto, Canada

*Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2009*

Available online at : http://www.jmir.org/2009/1/e11/HTML

/“Infodemiology/ can be defined as the science of distribution and
determinants of information in an electronic medium, specifically the
Internet, or in a population, with the ultimate aim to inform public
health and public policy.

Infodemiology data can be collected and analyzed in near real time.
Examples for infodemiology applications include: the analysis of queries
from Internet search engines to predict disease outbreaks (eg.
influenza); monitoring peoples' status updates on microblogs such as
Twitter for syndromic surveillance; detecting and quantifying
disparities in health information availability; identifying and
monitoring of public health relevant publications on the Internet (eg.
anti-vaccination sites, but also news articles or expert-curated
outbreak reports); automated tools to measure information diffusion and
knowledge translation, and tracking the effectiveness of health
marketing campaigns.

Moreover, analyzing how people search and navigate the Internet for
health-related information, as well as how they communicate and share
this information, can provide valuable insights into health-related
behavior of populations.

Seven years after the infodemiology concept was first introduced, this
paper revisits the emerging fields of infodemiology and infoveillance
and proposes an expanded framework, introducing some basic metrics such
as information prevalence, concept occurrence ratios, and information
incidence.

The framework distinguishes supply-based applications (analyzing what is
being published on the Internet, eg. on Web sites, newsgroups, blogs,
microblogs and social media) from demand-based methods (search and
navigation behavior), and further distinguishes passive from active
infoveillance methods. Infodemiology metrics follow population health
relevant events or predict them. Thus, these metrics and methods are
potentially useful for public health practice and research, and should
be further developed and standardized….”



(J Med Internet Res 2009;11(1):e11) doi:10.2196/jmir.1157


-- 
Vern Weitzel (Mr.) BSc, BA, MA, M Env Man & Dev
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