Digital public health surveillance: a systematic scoping review

Abstract

The ubiquitous and openly accessible information produced by the public on the Internet has sparked an increasing interest in developing digital public health surveillance (DPHS) systems. We conducted a systematic scoping review in accordance with the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews to consolidate and characterize the existing research on DPHS and identify areas for further research. We used Natural Language Processing and content analysis to define the search strings and searched Global Health, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar from 2005 to January 2020 for peer-reviewed articles on DPHS, with extensive hand searching. Seven hundred fifty-five articles were included in this review. The studies were from 54 countries and utilized 26 digital platforms to study 208 sub-categories of 49 categories associated with 16 public health surveillance (PHS) themes. Most studies were conducted by researchers from the United States (56%, 426) and dominated by communicable diseases-related topics (25%, 187), followed by behavioural risk factors (17%, 131). While this review discusses the potentials of using Internet-based data as an affordable and instantaneous resource for DPHS, it highlights the paucity of longitudinal studies and the methodological and inherent practical limitations underpinning the successful implementation of a DPHS system. Little work studied Internet users’ demographics when developing DPHS systems, and 39% (291) of studies did not stratify their results by geographic region. A clear methodology by which the results of DPHS can be linked to public health action has yet to be established, as only six (0.8%) studies deployed their system into a PHS context.

Utilizing Google Search Data With Deep Learning, Machine Learning and Time Series Modeling to Forecast Influenza-Like Illnesses in South Africa

“…In a very recent review of studies that utilized Internet-based user-generated data for public health surveillance by Abad et al [74], 56% of the studies were from the US. Other countries with a significant number of studies were the UK, Australia, Canada, and Italy.…”

The dawn of digital public health in Europe: Implications for public health policy and practice

“… 9 Interventions in DPH should collect data for public health surveillance, whether it be for public health emergencies or monitoring risk factors for widespread diseases at the population level. 6 , 13 , 14 …”

Passive Data Use for Ethical Digital Public Health Surveillance in a Postpandemic World

“…Emerging technologies, such as digital phenotyping, defined as moment-by-moment quantification of the individual-level human phenotype in situ using data from personal digital devices, allow for continuous monitoring of individuals’ health, which has previously been impossible [ 3 ]. Attempts to employ these data for digital public health surveillance, defined as “ongoing systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data [not generated with the primary goal of surveillance], integrated with the timely dissemination of these data to those who can undertake effective prevention and control activities,” are currently being undertaken; public health officials must look to history and current moral frameworks to avoid past mistakes and ethical pitfalls [ 4 , 5 ]. Thus, this viewpoint uses a scoping literature review and novel arguments to aid policy makers in critically analyzing how passive data might be used for digital public health surveillance ethically, with a particular focus on lessons to be learned from history.…”