A group of doctors in Baltimore used Google Flu Trends to track flu outbreaks there and discovered that the information is accurate and can even be helpful for individual hospital planning.
The findings - reported this month in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases - are significant because previous studies have shown that Google Flu Trends can help health officials at a national level, but none have proven that it can be so effective at a local level.
The information found on Google Flu Trends is much more timely than the CDC's reports because it is updated daily. The tracking information provided by the CDC is compiled weekly and may be as much as two weeks behind what is actually occurring by the time it is available.
The fact that hospitals and physicians may be able to use the information from Google to plan staffing and resources is significant. They may be able to prepare and respond to outbreaks more quickly and effectively. It may even help predict epidemics and pandemics in the future.
