Is digital epidemiology reliable?—insight from updated cancer statistics

Digital epidemiology is an innovative and constantly expanding scientific discipline, whose popularity has been catalyzed by enhanced access to scientific information and digital tools. The most obvious definition of digital epidemiology is that suggested by Marcel Salathé, according to whom “digital epidemiology is epidemiology based on digital sources data engendered outside public healthcare systems” (1). The worldwide popularity of this new discipline has constantly increased during the past decades, thanks to better accessibility to Internet-generated information, encompassing data attainable from social media and/or Web-based Search Engines.