Google trends as a resource for extracorporeal life support education: What do patients want to know?

Objective: ECMO is implemented as rescue therapy in patients with ARDS secondary to COVID-19 and refractory hypoxemia. Google Trends(GT) is a consistent development web-tool of data feedback providing information on the specific population's interests. This study aims to use GT to analyze the United States(US) general population interest on ECMO as COVID-19 ARDS salvage therapy. Methods: GT was used to access data searched for the term ECMO and COVID-19. Gathered information included data from March2020 through July2021 within the US. Search frequency, time intervals, locations, frequent topics of interest, and related searches were analyzed. Data was reported as search frequency on means, with a value of 100 representing overall peak popularity. Results: The number of Google searches related to the terms ECMO and COVID-19 surged and sustained interest over time since the initial reports of COVID-19 in the US, from an initial mean of 34% in March2020 to a 100% interest by April, resulting in an up-to-date overall average of 40.6%. Over time, WV, MN, and IA lead frequency of searches in subregion and metro areas. Conversely, Houston leads the city with the highest interest. Top searches terms by frequency include: ECMO-machine, COVID-ECMO, what-is-ECMO, ECMO-medical and ECMO-ventilator. Parallel to this, the related rising terms are: COVID-ECMO, ECMOmachine-COVID, ECMO-for-COVID, and ECMO-treatment-COVID. Websites seemingly fail to properly address these. Conclusions: GT complements the understanding of interest in ECMO for COVID-19. Interpreted properly, the use of GT can potentially improve on patient therapeutic education and therapy awareness via specific official websites.