Just last month I shared on the blog that Michael Jackson's death resulted in the highest ever search volumes on Google. Until February of 2018, June 2009 was the high water mark for search volume. In February the Bollywood actress Sridevi died and as a result the highest volume of searches related to her sudden cardiac arrest were performed. This is relevant for a couple reasons: 1) the internet is becoming less North American or Western European and less Anglophone and 2) India and possibly South East Asia may have the highest appetite for cardiac arrest related knowledge since 2004.

When the search volumes for Sridevi and cardiac arrest are laid overtop one another, this is what the trend lines look like. The media coverage largely reported her death as a cardiac arrest, as was the conclusion of her autopsy.

Below is a comparison of cardiac arrest related search volume from the USA in blue and India in Red. This is astounding - the highest volumes coming from India last month are over three times higher than the volumes that came out of the USA collowing Michael Jackson's death. Each search represents informaiton seeking behaviour, and in this case, seeking information about (or at least related to) cardiac arrest.

Here is the relative search volume for actress Sridevi in blue and cardiac arrest in red, coming out of India from January 1st 2008 to present day.

The actress' name has even been included in the summary of rising search queries Google users are using to access cardiac arrest related search results. Here it is in the number 4 rising related query position.

Now is the opportunity for organizations like the India Heart Association to engage their populace. Now is the time for teaching CPR, acquiring AEDs and improving the cardiac arrest response system. Now is also the time for public awareness campaigns, outreach and fundraising.