Internet-enabled self-diagnosis is nowadays prevalent due to the presence of search engines that deliver information within seconds. A variety of health-related websites avails data on any disease in today’s hyper-connected world. The information might be useful to a person or not implying the websites allow a two-way communication process due to a feedback channel (Schmidt, 2012). Mostly, people report diseases symptoms via social media thus allowing experts to search and monitor diseases. To this end, this paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of tracking diseases outbreak via the social media.
A key disadvantage of data available on social media regarding diseases is that it cannot be used for health research. Most websites rarely release the data citing privacy issues implying no one can use the data for research purposes (Schmidt, 2012). The daunting challenge is therefore how to release data without risking privacy. Most websites place much value on privacy suggesting protecting privacy undermines utilization of social media health data. Elsewhere, social media health data might not be used for research because ascertaining accuracy is hard. Often, social media users might post information to attract public curiosity rather than report a real outbreak of a disease.
Social media helps improve disease surveillance. News websites, government alerts, and eyewitness accounts help disease prevention organizations get important insights reported around the world (Schmidt, 2012). For example, iPhone has a disease surveillance application called Health Map while American Public Health Association has created a website called “Flu Near You” to serve as diseases sentinel. Google also operates a website called Google Flu Trends where people report early warnings and call upon health officials to establish immediate responses.
References
Schmidt, C. W. (2012). Using social media to predict and track disease outbreaks. Environmental health perspectives, 120(1), A31.
