Wallace researchers, in collaboration with the Bixby Center for Population, Health & Sustainability, and the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at UC Berkeley, are using search engine data as a novel source of information for understanding sexual and reproductive health needs. We are testing a methodology for customizing Google Applied Program Interfaces (APIs) to characterize internet searchers related to health information, health behaviors, and health outcomes. Through this work, researchers have assessed abortion and contraceptive information seeking behaviors and have developed a website quality assessment tool for reproductive health information. Currently, the Wallace Center is training undergraduate Public Health and Computer Science majors in this methodology.

Initial research funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, grant number 2017-66708