The graphs shown on ISIC present data on the frequency of various health-related searches using the Google search engine. The graphs are generated by the Google Trends service. ISIC is similar to Google.org's Flu Trends site, which shows searches related to influenza. Google Flu recently added data for Canadian flu-related searches. However, Google Flu is limited to flu, while ISIC includes flu, GI, and respiratory ailments, when there is sufficient data. Please read the disclaimer. My goal with this website is to offer a useful service to the medical community interested in syndromic surveillance. It won’t show what’s happening in your community, but you can see what’s happening at the provincial level, when there’s enough search data. How it WorksPeople use the Google search engine to search for information about various illnesses, such as the flu. Google keeps a count of the number of times each search word is used. Google then uses sampling and approximation techniques to compute the relative frequency of searches containing that search term and the total number of searches. The graph shows search incidence for a particular search term or a particular set of search terms (like "flu OR fever") over time. The y axis value is relative to the average search incidence for the earliest search data available (usually January 2004). A y axis value of, say, 3.5 indicates that the search incidence was 3.5 times greater than the average search incidence for January 2004.The figure below show the search incidence for terms related to the flu. There is one curve per year, making year-over-year comparisons easier. The curve for the current year is black. The curves for previous years are shades of green. The darker the shade of green, the more recent the data is. Google Trends Example for Flu-Related Searches
 To view the data for your province, select your province in the navigation panel, above on the left. Additional Info: What's New Background Disclaimer and Limitations Privacy This site was developed and is maintained by norm vinson (norm dot vinson at acm dot org), david carter, and rene richard. copyright National Research Council, Canada, 2009, 2010 nrc disclaimer |