The study of statistics of search queries allows to detect previously unknown side effects of drugs

Using data from search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo in 2010, a group of researchers from Microsoft Research, Stanford and Columbia University confirmed the ability to detect side effects of drugs by analyzing the information from the logs of search engines for General purpose. To check the information about the fact that the combined use of two drugs — paroxetine and pravastatin may lead to hyperglycemia. This became known only in 2011, that is, in 2010 no information about this network could not be.

The researchers analyzed the frequency of the search terms associated with symptoms of hyperglycemia among users who previously searched for online information about these two drugs. It turned out that the frequency of search queries about the symptoms of hyperglycemia is much higher in those who were looking for information on both drugs than those who searched for just one of them. The diagrams show that the difference was tangible throughout the years and is not some temporary or seasonal effect.



Usually such side effects find out by analyzing medical records of patients in hospitals. The analysis of search queries allows you to find this much earlier, since people are not always immediately turn to a specialist as soon as discover a new symptom — a visit to the doctor requires time, money and can cause unpleasant emotions, while searching the Internet, it takes five minutes. Thus, in logs of search engines often contain much more complete and timely information than in the medical databases, it is necessary only to be able to find her.

PDF results of the study.

Article based on information from habrahabr.ru

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