scholarly journals Mining social media and web searches for disease detection

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Tony Yang ◽  
Michael Horneffer ◽  
Nicole DiLisio

Web-based social media is increasingly being used across different settings in the health care industry. The increased frequency in the use of the Internet via computer or mobile devices provides an opportunity for social media to be the medium through which people can be provided with valuable health information quickly and directly. While traditional methods of detection relied predominately on hierarchical or bureaucratic lines of communication, these often failed to yield timely and accurate epidemiological intelligence. New web-based platforms promise increased opportunities for a more timely and accurate spreading of information and analysis. This article aims to provide an overview and discussion of the availability of timely and accurate information. It is especially useful for the rapid identification of an outbreak of an infectious disease that is necessary to promptly and effectively develop public health responses. These web-based platforms include search queries, data mining of web and social media, process and analysis of blogs containing epidemic key words, text mining, and geographical information system data analyses. These new sources of analysis and information are intended to complement traditional sources of epidemic intelligence. Despite the attractiveness of these new approaches, further study is needed to determine the accuracy of blogger statements, as increases in public participation may not necessarily mean the information provided is more accurate.

Author(s):  
Liang Chen ◽  
Xiaohui Wang ◽  
Taiquan Peng

BACKGROUND Over last two decades, the incidence and mortality rates of gynecologic cancers have increased in China and have become one of the most serious threats to women’s health there. With the widespread use of the Internet, an increasing number of individuals use social media to seek out and share a large amount of cancer-related information. However, health information on social media is not always accurate. Health, and especially cancer-related, misinformation has been widely spread on social media, which can affect individuals’ responses to cancer. OBJECTIVE The aim of this paper was to examine the nature and diffusion of gynecologic cancer-related misinformation on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. METHODS A total of 2,691 tweets related to gynecologic cancers posted on Weibo from June 2015 to June 2016 were extracted using the Python Web Crawler. Two medical school graduate students with expertise in gynecologic diseases were recruited to code the tweets in order to differentiate between true and false information as well as to identify the types of falsehoods. Next, a social network analysis was used to examine the diffusion cascades of misinformation through comparisons with true information. RESULTS The findings revealed that while most of the gynecologic cancer-related tweets provided medically accurate information, approximately 30% of them contained misinformation. Furthermore, the results showed that tweets about cancer treatment contained a higher percentage of misinformation than prevention-related tweets. The prevention-related misinformation diffused significantly more broadly and deeply than true information on social media. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study indicate that social media service providers and medical professionals should evaluate online resources regularly to control the production and diffusion of cancer misinformation on social media. More specifically, it is important to correct falsehoods related to the prevention of gynecologic cancers on social media and increase individuals’ abilities to assess the veracity of online information in order to limit the spread of prevention-related misinformation and to minimize the consequences of cancer-related misinformation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-34
Author(s):  
Ari Waluyo ◽  
Satria Budi Santoso

The purpose of this research is to know the geographic information system of tourism that is in Dinas Kepemudaan dan Olahraga dan Pariwisata Kebumen Regency and develop it Research methods used by doing observationin Dinas Kepemudaan dan Olahraga dan Pariwisata Kebumen Regency, then proceed with the system development method. the research method used is by the method of SDLC (System Development Life Cycle). By using the Software Notepad ++ to build tourism Geographical Information System web-based. PHP as a programming language, MySQL as the database server and the design of the map using the Google Maps API. The object-oriented approach that is used UML (Unified Modeling Language) can explain the flow of the existing system. Dinas Kepemudaan dan Olahraga dan Pariwisata Kebumen Regency has been doing promotion through mass media such as newspapers and brochures in the delivery of information. But the way is not enough to inform tourism and places of attractions. It is therefore through the design of Geographical information system of tourism was able to resolve the issue. After the results of the study of geographic information systems is expected delivery of tourism information becomes more widespread, and the tourists could be quick and precise in finding information a tourist want to visit.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ignacio Garitano ◽  
Manuel Linares ◽  
Laura Santos ◽  
Ruth Gil ◽  
Elena Lapuente ◽  
...  

UNSTRUCTURED On 28th February a case of COVID-19 was declared in Araba-Álava province, Spain. In Spain, a confinement and movement restrictions were established by Spanish Government at 14th March 2020. We implemented a web-based tool to estimate number of cases during the pandemic. We present the results in Áraba-Álava province. We reached a response rate of 10,3% out a 331.549 population. We found that 22,4 % fulfilled the case definition. This tool rendered useful to inform public health action.


Epidemiologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-94
Author(s):  
Mst. Marium Begum ◽  
Osman Ulvi ◽  
Ajlina Karamehic-Muratovic ◽  
Mallory R. Walsh ◽  
Hasan Tarek ◽  
...  

Background: Chikungunya is a vector-borne disease, mostly present in tropical and subtropical regions. The virus is spread by Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus mosquitos and symptoms include high fever to severe joint pain. Dhaka, Bangladesh, suffered an outbreak of chikungunya in 2017 lasting from April to September. With the goal of reducing cases, social media was at the forefront during this outbreak and educated the public about symptoms, prevention, and control of the virus. Popular web-based sources such as the top dailies in Bangladesh, local news outlets, and Facebook spread awareness of the outbreak. Objective: This study sought to investigate the role of social and mainstream media during the chikungunya epidemic. The study objective was to determine if social media can improve awareness of and practice associated with reducing cases of chikungunya. Methods: We collected chikungunya-related information circulated from the top nine television channels in Dhaka, Bangladesh, airing from 1st April–20th August 2017. All the news published in the top six dailies in Bangladesh were also compiled. The 50 most viewed chikungunya-related Bengali videos were manually coded and analyzed. Other social media outlets, such as Facebook, were also analyzed to determine the number of chikungunya-related posts and responses to these posts. Results: Our study showed that media outlets were associated with reducing cases of chikungunya, indicating that media has the potential to impact future outbreaks of these alpha viruses. Each media outlet (e.g., web, television) had an impact on the human response to an individual’s healthcare during this outbreak. Conclusions: To prevent future outbreaks of chikungunya, media outlets and social media can be used to educate the public regarding prevention strategies such as encouraging safe travel, removing stagnant water sources, and assisting with tracking cases globally to determine where future outbreaks may occur.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sungwon Yoon ◽  
Sharon Wee ◽  
Vivian S. Y. Lee ◽  
Jing Lin ◽  
Julian Thumboo

Abstract Background Although existing studies have described patterns of social media use in healthcare, most are focused on health professionals in one discipline. Population health requires a multi-disciplinary approach to ensure diversity and to include diverse stakeholders. To date, what is known about using social media in population health is focused on its potential as a communication tool. This study aims to investigate patterns of use and perceived value of social media usage among stakeholders in population health practice, policy, or research. Methods We conducted a web-based survey of delegates attending the Singapore Population Health Conversations and Workshop. We designed a 24-item questionnaire to assess 1) social media use in terms of type of platform and frequency of use; 2) perceptions of social media relevance and impact on population health; and 3) top three areas in population health that would benefit from social media. We used descriptive and logistic regression analyses to assess the relationships between variables. Results Of the 308 survey respondents, 97.7% reported that they use social media in some form. Messaging (96.8%) was the most dominant activity when using social media. Challenges in implementing social media for population health were time investment by health care professionals (56.2%) and patient adoption (52.9%). The top three population health areas that would benefit most from using social media were the promotion of healthy behaviors (60.7%), community engagement (47.7%), and preventive care (40.6%). Older respondents (> = 40 years) were less likely to view social media as useful for the promotion of healthy behaviors (OR = 0.34; 95% CI: 0.19–0.60). Non-social/healthcare professionals were more likely to consider social media to be useful for community engagement (OR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.10–2.76). For preventive care, older respondents (OR = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.32–0.82) and non-social/healthcare professionals were less likely to view social media as useful (OR = 0.61; 95% CI: 0.38–0.97). Conclusions Our findings suggest that it may be important to select the specific care areas that would benefit most from using social media. The time investment needed by population health professionals should be fully addressed in planning to maximize the application and potential value of social media.


2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 58-65
Author(s):  
Obey Dzomonda ◽  
Olawale Fatoki ◽  
Olabanji Oni ◽  
Mgoako Prudence Bosch

Author(s):  
Neelesh Pandey ◽  

Women’s health is a matter of concern for very countries. The advancement in the field of internet and emergence of social media has affected communication process to a great extent. As social media has advantage over traditional media because of web based applications, it can be used to promote health communication especially women’s health which is neglected over the time. The present article attempts to find out the potential and challenges of social media for using as a tool to promote and aware the public on women’s health.


Author(s):  
Bekir Bartin ◽  
Sami Demiroluk ◽  
Kaan Ozbay ◽  
Mojibulrahman Jami

This paper introduces CurvS, a web-based tool for researchers and analysts that automatically extracts, visualizes, and analyzes roadway horizontal alignment information using readily available geographic information system roadway centerline data. The functionalities of CurvS are presented along with a brief background on its methodology. The validation of its estimation results are presented using actual horizontal alignment data from two different roadway types: Route 83, a two-lane two-way rural roadway in New Jersey and I-80, a freeway segment in Nevada. Different metrics are used for validation. These are identification rates of curved and tangent sections, overlap ratio of curved and tangent sections between estimated and actual horizontal alignment data, and percent fit of curve radii. The validation results show that CurvS is able to identify all the curves on these two roadways, and the estimated section lengths are significantly close to the actual alignment data, especially for the I-80 freeway segment, where 90% of curved length and 94% of tangent section length are correctly matched. Even when curves have small central angles, such as the ones in Route 83, CurvS’s estimations covers 71% of curved length and 96% of tangent section length.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document