Using Search Engine Query Data to Track Pharmaceutical Utilization: A Study of Statins

作者：Schuster Nathaniel M; Rogers Mary A M; McMahon Laurence F Jr^*

来源：American Journal of Managed Care, 2010, 16(8): E215-E219.

Objective: To examine temporal and geographic associations between Google queries for health information and healthcare utilization benchmarks.
Study Design: Retrospective longitudinal study.
Methods: Using Google Trends and Google Insights for Search data, the search terms Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium; Pfizer, Ann Arbor, MI) and simvastatin were evaluated for change over time and for association with Lipitor revenues. The relationship between query data and community-based resource use per Medicare beneficiary was assessed for 35 US metropolitan areas.
Results: Google queries for Lipitor significantly decreased from January 2004 through June 2009 and queries for simvastatin significantly increased (P < .001 for both), particularly after Lipitor came off patent (P < .001 for change in slope). The mean number of Google queries for Lipitor correlated (r = 0.98) with the percentage change in Lipitor global revenues from 2004 to 2008 (P < .001). Query preference for Lipitor over simvastatin was positively associated (r = 0.40) with a community's use of Medicare services. For every 1% increase in utilization of Medicare services in a community, there was a 0.2-unit increase in the ratio of Lipitor queries to simvastatin queries in that community (P = .02).
Conclusions: Specific search engine queries for medical information correlate with pharmaceutical revenue and with overall healthcare utilization in a community. This suggests that search query data can track community-wide characteristics in healthcare utilization and have the potential for informing payers and policy makers regarding trends in utilization. (Am J Manag Care. 2010;16(8):e215-e219)

• 出版日期2010-8