TY - JOUR
T1 - What did you google? Describing online health information search patterns of ED patients and their relationship with final diagnoses
AU - McCarthy, Danielle M.
AU - Scott, Grant N.
AU - Courtney, D. Mark
AU - Czerniak, Alyssa
AU - Aldeen, Amer Z.
AU - Gravenor, Stephanie
AU - Dresden, Scott M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Conflicts of Interest: By the WestJEM article submission agreement, all authors are required to disclose all affiliations, funding sources and financial or management relationships that could be perceived as potential sources of bias. Data collection for this project was funded by a CMS Contract (Site PI: Dresden). The sponsor had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation of data, or the writing of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the article author(s).
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - Introduction: Emergency department (ED) patients' Internet search terms prior to arrival have not been well characterized. The objective of this analysis was to characterize the Internet search terms patients used prior to ED arrival and their relationship to final diagnoses. Methods: We collected data via survey; participants listed Internet search terms used. Terms were classified into categories: Symptom, specific diagnosis, treatment options, anatomy questions, processes of care/physicians, or "other." We categorized each discharge diagnosis as either symptombased or formal diagnosis. The relationship between the search term and final diagnosis was assigned to one of four categories of search/diagnosis combinations (symptom search/symptom diagnosis, symptom search/formal diagnosis, diagnosis search/symptom diagnosis, diagnosis search/formal diagnosis), representing different "trajectories." Results: We approached 889 patients; 723 (81.3%) participated. Of these, 177 (24.5%) used the Internet prior to ED presentation; however, seven had incomplete data (N=170). Mean age was 47 years (standard deviation 18.2); 58.6% were female and 65.7% white. We found that 61.7% searched symptoms and 40.6% searched a specific diagnosis. Most patients received discharge diagnoses of equal specificity as their search terms (34% flat trajectory-symptoms and 34% flat trajectory-diagnosis). Ten percent searched for a diagnosis by name but received a symptom-based discharge diagnosis with less specificity. In contrast, 22% searched for a symptom and received a detailed diagnosis. Among those who searched for a diagnosis by name (n=69) only 29% received the diagnosis that they had searched. Conclusion: The majority of patients used symptoms as the basis of their pre-ED presentation Internet search. When patients did search for specific diagnoses, only a minority searched for the diagnosis they eventually received.
AB - Introduction: Emergency department (ED) patients' Internet search terms prior to arrival have not been well characterized. The objective of this analysis was to characterize the Internet search terms patients used prior to ED arrival and their relationship to final diagnoses. Methods: We collected data via survey; participants listed Internet search terms used. Terms were classified into categories: Symptom, specific diagnosis, treatment options, anatomy questions, processes of care/physicians, or "other." We categorized each discharge diagnosis as either symptombased or formal diagnosis. The relationship between the search term and final diagnosis was assigned to one of four categories of search/diagnosis combinations (symptom search/symptom diagnosis, symptom search/formal diagnosis, diagnosis search/symptom diagnosis, diagnosis search/formal diagnosis), representing different "trajectories." Results: We approached 889 patients; 723 (81.3%) participated. Of these, 177 (24.5%) used the Internet prior to ED presentation; however, seven had incomplete data (N=170). Mean age was 47 years (standard deviation 18.2); 58.6% were female and 65.7% white. We found that 61.7% searched symptoms and 40.6% searched a specific diagnosis. Most patients received discharge diagnoses of equal specificity as their search terms (34% flat trajectory-symptoms and 34% flat trajectory-diagnosis). Ten percent searched for a diagnosis by name but received a symptom-based discharge diagnosis with less specificity. In contrast, 22% searched for a symptom and received a detailed diagnosis. Among those who searched for a diagnosis by name (n=69) only 29% received the diagnosis that they had searched. Conclusion: The majority of patients used symptoms as the basis of their pre-ED presentation Internet search. When patients did search for specific diagnoses, only a minority searched for the diagnosis they eventually received.
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U2 - 10.5811/westjem.2017.5.34108
DO - 10.5811/westjem.2017.5.34108
M3 - Article
C2 - 28874946
AN - SCOPUS:85027849573
SN - 1936-900X
VL - 18
SP - 928
EP - 936
JO - Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
JF - Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
IS - 5
ER -