JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

The seemingly endless amount of information available on the internet at the touch of a few buttons has increasingly served as a resource for individuals to find health information over the last 20+ years. Google Trends data shows that number of searches for the common primary care symptoms “cough”, “sore throat”, and “stomach pain” in the United States grew by 208%, 290%, and 490%, respectively, between 2004 and 2019. However, over the same time, United States population-adjusted outpatient visits for cough and sore throat decreased by 41.5% and 40%, respectively, and stomach pain visits remained unchanged. This suggests that, on a population level, people found online health information about some common, acute symptoms to be reassuring or informative enough to not feel the need to seek care from a primary health care provider. With the rapid evolution and availability of more detailed and personalized information from various large language models it is likely that internet search habits of users will continue to grow, and with it, continue to transform interactions with the healthcare system.