title: Using clinicians' search query data to monitor influenza epidemics.
abstract: Search query information from a clinician's database, UpToDate, is shown to predict influenza epidemics in the United States in a timely manner. Our results show that digital disease surveillance tools based on experts' databases may be able to provide an alternative, reliable, and stable signal for accurate predictions of influenza outbreaks.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge Children's Hospital Informatics Program, Boston Children's Hospital.
authors.forename: Mauricio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Santillana
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital Informatics Program, Boston Children's Hospital Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston.
authors.forename: Elaine O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Nsoesie
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital Informatics Program, Boston Children's Hospital.
authors.forename: Sumiko R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Mekaru
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital Informatics Program, Boston Children's Hospital Department of Internal Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scales
authors.affiliation: Children's Hospital Informatics Program, Boston Children's Hospital Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Brownstein
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology*; D020407:Internet; D010820:Physicians; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: Internet-based disease surveillance; digital disease detection; prediction of influenza