Google for Health roundtable
Unlocking the Power of Internet Search Data for Health and Social Science Research
Last week, Google for Health and Smart Data Research UK co-hosted a roundtable on ‘Unlocking the Power of Internet Search Data for Health and Social Science Research’.
This invitation-only event brought together leading academic researchers, clinicians, technologists, and funders to discuss the feasibility and value of incorporating internet search data into health and social science research.
The discussions covered an array of themes and topics, which included, amongst others:
- the acknowledgement of the feasibility of internet search data to enhance early disease detection and prediction across multiple disease types (e.g. ovarian cancer, dementia, etc.)
- participant-led consent models as a central tenet of scalable and ethical data donation supported by a robust Trusted Research Environments
- value of linking internet search data and UK longitudinal studies, such as Understanding Society, for population-level health research
- potential for AI/ML to identify patterns and signals within large-scale datasets
- challenges around the ease of portability (for download and share models); ethical frameworks; bias; and public trust
The roundtable provided a foundation for initiating further collaboration and opportunities to explore the power and utility of this smart data to enhance research for the public good.
More information
Documentation from the roundtable includes the roundtable session prompts; frequently asked questions regarding Google Takeout and its use for clinical research; and an overview of the roundtable takeout.
Two research papers on internet search data you may also find helpful are Using online search activity for earlier detection of gynaecological malignancy and Systematic review of health research using internet search data.
Notes
Unlocking the Potential of Internet Search Data for Health and Social Research
12 June, 2025 |10:00am – 5:00pm
30 Euston Square London NW1 2FB
Session contributors
Research Strategy, Integration and Policy
- Rushil Ranchod, PhD – Smart Data Research UK / UKRI
Senior Manager | Research Strategy, Funding Landscapes, Data Portability & Privacy - Jessie ‘Chuy’ Chavez – Google Health Program Manager | Data Integration, Regulation, Developer Engagement
- Tom Fish – Data Transfer Initiative (DTI) Senior Policy Fellow | Tech/legal perspectives on data portability
- Nathalie Pereira – Google Strategic Partnerships, Competition Regulation Response
Clinical and Public Health Insight
- Dr Matthew Thompson – Google Health Clinical Research Specialist | Google Health Perspective
- Professor James Flanagan – Imperial College London, Cancer Research UK Professor | Cancer Data Integration
- Professor Will Dixon – University of Manchester | Digital Epidemiology
- Professor Eva Morris – University of Oxford | Health Data Epidemiology, Big Data, linked datasets
Infrastructure, Governance and Public Health Systems
- Agnieszka Scott – UK Government Director | Smart Data Program Officer | UK Government Coordination
- Dr Jeanelle de Guchy – UK Government | Deputy Chief Medical Officer for England | Co-Lead Office of Health Improvement and Disparities
Participant Engagement and Public Trust
- Professor Suzanne Scott – Wolfson Institute, Queen Mary Public Health Scientist | Trust-building for research participation
- Eboney White – Nurse and bioethicist | Health Equity, Digital Consent & Public Trust in Emerging Technology
Population Health and Cohorts
- Dr Ali Connell – Our Future Health Director of Digital | Large Cohort Tools, Digital Integration
- Tarek Al Baghal, PhD – University of Essex, Associate Director | Large Cohort Studies | Questionnaire Design
- Dan Lewer – Born in Bradford | Lead Researcher, Epidemiologist | Community Health
Mental and Behavioural Health, Digital Trace
- Dr Richard Graham – SDDS | University of York | Consultant Psychiatrist | Child and Adolescent Mental Health Gaming and Digital Data
- David Zendle, PhD – University of York | Behavioural Research Scientist | Gaming and Behavioural Data Integration
- Naomi Herz, PhD – Wellcome Trust | Technology Lead | Novel Medical Technologies & Data Analysis
- Urszula Pawlicka-Deger, PhD – Wellcome Trust | Program Officer | Research Infrastructure
Ethics, Law and Consent
- Professor Charles Marshall – Queen Mary, Wolfson Institute Professor | Neurological disorders, ethical recruitment challenges
- Professor Jessica Bell – University of Warwick | School of Law Bioethics Professor | Ethics, Consent, Process Design
- Professor Sarah Devaney – University of Manchester | Healthcare Law and Regulation, consent, regulatory tools
- Professor Aiden Doherty – University of Oxford scientist | Integrating wearables data into research
Study Design and Methodology
- Professor Tim Chico – Cardiologist, University of Sheffield | Study Design Expert, Data Integration
- Professor Emmanouil Tranos – University of Bristol, Turing Fellow Urban Data Researcher | General Research
Social and Prosocial Behaviour
- Anya Skatova, PhD – University of Bristol / Director of Digital Footprints Senior Research Fellow | EHR, Loyalty Cards, Decision-Making
- Professor Luke Sloan – Cardiff University Professor | Digital Trace Data in the Research Landscape
Clinical and Early Detection Research
- Garth Funston, PhD | Queen Mary University of London Researcher | General Research and Data Use in Health Contexts
- Dr Jen Barcroft – Imperial College London, Cardiologist | Early Detection Talisia Quallo, PhD – Cancer Research UK Researcher | Early Detection
Data Science and Academic Research Integration
- Professor Goran Nenadic – University of Manchester | Computer Science, NLP, Healthcare Social Media
- Dr Josselin Ducheteau and Dr. Gauthier Beugue – CHU de Bordeaux | Cardiologists | Heart Disease Prediction
