Using Social Media to Perform Local Influenza Surveillance in an Inner-City Hospital: A Retrospective Observational Study
An article published in the JMIR Public Health Surveillance
From the article results: "We found that municipal-level Twitter data was more effective than regional and national data when tracking actual influenza infection rates in a Baltimore inner-city hospital. When combined, national-level Twitter and Google Flu Trends data outperformed each data source individually. In addition, influenza-like illness data at all levels of geographic granularity were best predicted by national Google Flu Trends data."
| Study Region | U.S. |
| Organization | George Washington University |
| Issue or Problem | Influenza-like illness |
| Tech Medium | Twitter |
| Technology Device | Smart Phone |
| mFHAST Implication | Opportunity for using SMS as a means of gathering health surveillance data. |