How we can use internet advertising with clinical questionnaires to screen for cancer

What is it about?

My paper shows how to leverage the information that Internet advertisers have about us, to screen for 3 types of cancer. Our results suggest that it’s indeed possible to screen people for their likelihood of suffering from cancer before they are diagnosed by a doctor. Here’s how it works: when an advertiser uses Bing or Google to advertise, they select keywords such that when a user searches for these keywords their ads are shown. A more sophisticated form of advertising happens when, in addition, advertisers tell Google or Bing whenever a user who saw the ads buys the product they were trying to sell. When advertisers do this, the advertising systems learn to predict who, among all people use the keywords, are likely to buy a product (technically this is known as conversion optimization). This learning is based on the information that advertising systems have about users, including their interests, locations and demographics.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

My paper shows how we can use a system that many interact with on a daily basis to diagnose disease earlier, possibly providing better outcomes.