Infodemiology in Public Health Infoveillance: An Inevitable Necessity in 21st Century

Infodemiology tends to use the internet and web 2.0 services to collect and analyze health-related data on the web automatically. The basic assumption is that these data likely represent high compatibility with health information need of different categories of people. The constant monitoring of information provides a health information-seeking behavior model for policymakers. The current study aimed to investigate the origin of the term “infodemiology” as well as its application in the big data area. Also, the study focused on the weakness of traditional health information systems. Finally, this research studied the state of social networks and internet search as an infodemiological tool.

This research conducted by a review study as well as a comprehensive and systematic review related to infodemiology.

The results showed that policymakers receive critical and useful data about public health as late as possible by the use of traditional methods. So infodemiology designs new methods using computers, internet, web-based services, and information technology to improve public healthcare. It could be applied for problem-solving in medicine, medical education, and research-based services in electronic media.

Infodemiological methods and measurements could save the common costs of public health infoveillance by constant monitoring of data in the digital environment.