Google search histories of patients presenting to an emergency department: an observational study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To test patients' willingness to share and link their prior Google search histories with data from their electronic medical record (EMR), and to explore associations between search histories and clinical conditions.

Design

Cross-sectional study of emergency department (ED) patients from 2016 to 2017.

Setting

Academic medical centre ED.

Participants

A total of 703 patients were approached; 334 of a volunteer sample of 411 (81%) reported having a Google account; 165 of those (49%) consented to share their Google search histories and EMR data; 119 (72%) were able to do so. 16 (13%) of those 119 patients had no data and were not included in the final count. Patients under the age of 18 or with a triage level of 1 were considered ineligible and were not ap

SUBMITTER: Asch JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6398768 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature