SynthesisJournal of medical Internet research2020
The Application of Internet-Based Sources for Public Health Surveillance (Infoveillance): Systematic Review.
Synthesis in Journal of medical Internet research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 117 citations in OpenAlex.
- Innovating health prevention models in detecting infectious disease outbreaks through social media data: an umbrella review of the evidence.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- The Characteristics, Uses, and Biases of Studies Related to Malignancies Using Google Trends: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- Digital Data Sources and Their Impact on People's Health: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews.Frontiers in public health · 2021Pooled it
- Integrating mathematical modelling and artificial intelligence to combat emerging viral syndemics: A systematic review.New microbes and new infections · 2026Review
- Infodemiology of West Nile Virus in Greece, 2024-2025, with Descriptive One Health Preparedness Evidence from Crete.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Legal Infoveillance of Unlicensed Medical Practices in South Korea Through Criminal Court Decisions Using Machine Learning: Retrospective Observational Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2026Observational
- Evaluating the Mainstream Influence of Cardiothoracic Surgical Research: An Analysis of Google Trends Data from 2004 to 2024.Brazilian journal of cardiovascular surgery · 2026Article
- Multilingual analysis of public discourse on opioid and non-opioid analgesics through social media: a cross-sectional infodemiological study.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- Artificial intelligence in infection surveillance: Data integration, applications and future directions.Biomedical journal · 2026Review
- Augmenting fact and date of death in electronic health records using internet media sources: a validation study from two large healthcare systems.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Risk Communication and Infodemic Misframing inMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Developing predictive models for COVID-19 positive tests based on the XGBoost and random forest algorithms with internet search data.BMC public health · 2025Article
- One Health, Many Gaps: Rethinking Epidemic Intelligence in Resource-Limited Settings to Prepare for the Global Threat of Disease X.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Influential Factors of Electronic Cigarette Web-Based Attention in Mainland China: Time Series Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Observational
- Harnessing artificial intelligence for enhanced public health surveillance: a narrative review.Frontiers in public health · 2025Review
- Factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination rates in countries with different income levels: a panel analysis.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Comparing public health-related material in print and web page versions of legacy media.JAMIA open · 2024Article
- Mental Health Care Navigation Tools in Australia: Infoveillance Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2024Article
- Use of Digital Tools in Arbovirus Surveillance: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Leveraging investments, promoting transparency and mobilising communities: a qualitative analysis of news articles about how the Ebola outbreak informed COVID-19 response in five African countries.BMJ global health · 2024Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPublic health surveillance is based on the continuous and systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data. This informs the development of early warning systems to monitor epidemics and documents the impact of intervention measures. The introduction of digital data sources, and specifically sources available on the internet, has impacted the field of public health surveillance. New opportunities enabled by the underlying availability and scale of internet-based sources (IBSs) have paved the way for novel approaches for disease surveillance, exploration of health communities, and the study of epidemic dynamics. This field and approach is also known as infodemiology or infoveillance.
objectiveThis review aimed to assess research findings regarding the application of IBSs for public health surveillance (infodemiology or infoveillance). To achieve this, we have presented a comprehensive systematic literature review with a focus on these sources and their limitations, the diseases targeted, and commonly applied methods.
methodsA systematic literature review was conducted targeting publications between 2012 and 2018 that leveraged IBSs for public health surveillance, outbreak forecasting, disease characterization, diagnosis prediction, content analysis, and health-topic identification. The search results were filtered according to previously defined inclusion and exclusion criteria.
resultsSpanning a total of 162 publications, we determined infectious diseases to be the preferred case study (108/162, 66.7%). Of the eight categories of IBSs (search queries, social media, news, discussion forums, websites, web encyclopedia, and online obituaries), search queries and social media were applied in 95.1% (154/162) of the reviewed publications. We also identified limitations in representativeness and biased user age groups, as well as high susceptibility to media events by search queries, social media, and web encyclopedias.
conclusionsIBSs are a valuable proxy to study illnesses affecting the general population; however, it is important to characterize which diseases are best suited for the available sources; the literature shows that the level of engagement among online platforms can be a potential indicator. There is a necessity to understand the population's online behavior; in addition, the exploration of health information dissemination and its content is significantly unexplored. With this information, we can understand how the population communicates about illnesses online and, in the process, benefit public health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.