Analysis of anonymised web log data could be used as early warning system
Internet searches on health symptoms can be used to identify drug side effects and could be used to develop a new kind of early warning system to boost drug safety, indicates a study published online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
The authors base their findings on an analysis of the anonymised search logs of millions of US web users, who agreed to install a browser add-on and share their online searches with Microsoft throughout 2010.
The researchers developed automated tools to analyse the queries of people who searched for information on the antidepressant (paroxetine) and a cholesterol lowering drug (pravastatin), using the search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo.
In 2010, it was not yet public knowledge that taking both these two drugs caused high blood sugar (hyperglycaemia), but the authors later extracted this information by mining the US drugs regulator’s medicines side effect reporting system (AERS) and confirming the finding in a separate laboratory study.
In the web log study, the authors looked at whether people who had searched online for either one of the drugs separately, or for both of them, would also search with queries containing terms associated with the symptoms of high blood sugar.
In all, they analysed 82 million drug, symptom, and condition queries from among 6 million web users.
They found that online searches for information on prescription drugs was common, with more than one in 250 people looking up at least one of the 100 top selling drugs in the US, including paroxetine and pravastatin.
For people who searched online for both drugs during the 12 month period, queries were made on the same day in almost a third (29.61%) of searches, while four out of 10 were in the same week. Six out of 10 were made within the same month.
During the study period, those people who looked up both drugs online were almost twice as likely to search for terms associated with high blood sugar as were those who looked up the drugs separately.
One in 10 of those looking up both drugs did this, compared with around one in 20 of those looking up each drug separately. Just 0.3% of all users searched for one or more terms associated with high blood sugar over the 12 months.
These differences in search patterns were evident across the whole period of the study, and were not influenced by public information as the discovery of the interaction between this particular pair of drugs was only made in 2011.
Analysis of other 31 drug pair interactions associated with high blood sugar also indicated similar patterns, suggesting that the value of log analysis is not just confined to paroxetine and pravastatin.
“There is a potential public health benefit in listening to such signals, and integrating them with other sources of information,” write the authors.
The Latest Bing News on:
Early warning system for drug safety
- Early test results show pasteurized milk with traces of H5N1 virus isn’t infectious, FDA sayson April 26, 2024 at 11:32 am
The US Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it had detected viral particles of H5N1 avian influenza in milk purchased at grocery stores, but the agency says it still believes that the milk ...
- Rashtrotthana Hospital Implements Contactless Remote Patient Monitoring with Dozee to Enhance Patient Safetyon April 15, 2024 at 8:08 am
With patient safety as our top priority, Dozee’s AI based contactless monitoring system with its early warning system helps us effectively provide time-based interventions for better care.
- Budget cuts could 'cripple' a Gulf early warning system that monitors hurricanes and red tideson April 8, 2024 at 6:47 am
Brenner said the 75% proposed budget cuts would "cripple" the early warning system. "Our observation sites are essential to maintaining safety operations at sea, also along the coastline ...
- Health's weekend read includes solar eclipse eye safety, bird flu warnings and moreon April 7, 2024 at 5:14 pm
officials are warning of the potential for a future human pandemic. Get the details on the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) alert along with other experts’ insights. Click here to get the ...
- Early warning system to prevent US-style opioid crisis in Britainon March 15, 2024 at 8:01 pm
Britain is developing an early warning system to spot synthetic opioids and other emerging drugs to prevent a US-style fentanyl crisis breaking out in the UK. Chris Philp, the crime and policing ...
- Israel set to deliver early-warning systems for missile strikes to Ukraine — envoy to UNon February 26, 2024 at 5:43 am
Israel is working toward sending Ukraine early-warning systems for missile strikes and ... let alone care about the safety of Ukrainian military servicemen," the officer said "In the clash ...
- Democrats scold Marjorie Taylor Greene for ‘vulgarity’ and ‘conspiracy’ in vaccine hearingon February 15, 2024 at 2:50 pm
earned scorn from her Democratic colleagues for referring to herself as an expert in “recognizing bullshit” during a Thursday hearing on improving vaccine safety systems and Americans’ trust ...
- More early warning systems for landslides should be installed, says Lam Thyeon January 28, 2024 at 4:12 am
KUALA LUMPUR: Authorities should install more early warning systems for landslides to ensure ... an owner to look after and to maintain the safety of all slopes, Lee said. "It is important that ...
- New NHS warning system for parents to be introducedon November 2, 2023 at 11:38 pm
The National Paediatric Early Warning System ... Nursing is a safety-critical profession, and we have been calling for a standardised warning system in the NHS to try and stop such tragic cases ...
- Why Are There Drug Shortages?on April 18, 2023 at 8:58 am
What if you are hospitalized and the drug needed ... with no prior warning. That doesn’t happen in China and India. So, we are holding manufacturers in the U.S. to a higher safety standard.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Early warning system for drug safety
[google_news title=”” keyword=”early warning system for drug safety” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”] [/vc_column_text]The Latest Bing News on:
Drug safety
- Clinical Perspectives in Drug Safety and Adverse Drug Reactionson May 2, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Such an active/proactive approach, while maintaining focus on ADR detection, could also aim to extend knowledge of safety, such that emerging changes in risk–benefit during a drug's marketed ...
- Ozempic 'oops' babies spark debate about weight-loss drugs' safetyon May 1, 2024 at 4:59 am
A surprising thing is happening to some women on weight-loss drugs who have struggled with fertility issues: They're getting pregnant. That's leading to safety questions.
- Clinical Perspectives in Drug Safety and Adverse Drug Reactionson April 30, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol. 2008;1(5):695-705. The quality of spontaneous reports is also very important for the proper evaluation of drug safety signals and it is preferable to have a small number ...
- Morphosys says takeover by Novartis on course after report of drug safety concernon April 29, 2024 at 2:11 am
BERLIN (Reuters) -Morphosys said its takeover by Novartis is still expected to close in the first half of this year, after a news report on a possible drug safety risk knocked the German biotechnology ...
- PA students learn the importance of prescription drug safetyon April 26, 2024 at 9:35 pm
Between 2019 and 2021, more than 2,200 adolescents fatally overdose, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The potent synthetic opioid, fentanyl, was involved in 84 percent ...
- Using Explainable AI To Ensure Drug Discovery Safetyon April 25, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Clinical drug development has a 90% failure rate – a disheartening reality for drug development scientists, pharmaceutical companies and patients alike. Safety is a major contributing factor to this ...
- Pennsylvania Youth Receive Vital Education on Prescription Drug Safety Amidst Fentanyl Crisison April 24, 2024 at 10:35 am
Truth Initiative and EVERFI have joined forces once again, supported by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General’s Community Drug Abuse Prevention grant program. Together, they are delivering ...
- Over 5,000 public interest lawsuits concerning food, drug safety filed in Q1on April 21, 2024 at 4:41 am
BEIJING -- Procuratorial organs across China filed 5,126 public interest lawsuits concerning food and drug safety in the first quarter of 2024, the Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) said on Sunday.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Drug safety
[google_news title=”” keyword=”drug safety” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]