Evaluating Google Trends as a Tool for Integrating the ‘Smart Health’ Concept in the Smart Cities’ Governance in USA

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to introduce the methodology of using online search traffic data in order to integrate the public's online behavior in Smart Health; a concept that is currently rising concerning the health factor of Smart Cities. We use normalized data from Google Trends from January 2013 to December 2015 in the US, aiming at exploring the change in interest in various medical terms, and examine if Google Trends is a possible tool for evaluating health search queries by nowcasting the public's online interest. The results show that Google Trends’ data can be used for measuring the public's interest in health related terms, in order to assist with the evaluation of ‘Smart Health’