Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA
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J Am Med Inform Assoc · Dec 2019
Internet search query data improve forecasts of daily emergency department volume.
Emergency departments (EDs) are increasingly overcrowded. Forecasting patient visit volume is challenging. Reliable and accurate forecasting strategies may help improve resource allocation and mitigate the effects of overcrowding. Patterns related to weather, day of the week, season, and holidays have been previously used to forecast ED visits. Internet search activity has proven useful for predicting disease trends and offers a new opportunity to improve ED visit forecasting. This study tests whether Google search data and relevant statistical methods can improve the accuracy of ED volume forecasting compared with traditional data sources. ⋯ This study demonstrates that search volume data can meaningfully improve forecasting of ED visit volume and could help improve quality and reduce cost.