Swedish researchers used Google Analytics to monitor one year of evening web traffic on the Stockholm Health Care Guide, a regional medical website, as a way to gauge the public’s concern for their health.
The number of web visits between 6 p.m. and midnight were strongly correlated with ED visits for the area around Stockholm, according to the report.
The model was effective in predicting ED traffic both for the region and for individual hospitals, according to the study, with a regional error rate of 4.8 percent.
The authors’ proof-of-concept for using internet data to predict ED capacity may have useful applications in allocating ED resources, according to coverage of the study from Medscape.
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