While many healthcare professionals have limited their use of Twitter to social communication or marketing, it can be used for clinical purposes as well, suggests a new article appearing in a journal.
The article, which appears in Telemedicine and e-Health, argues that there are a multitude of ways Twitter can be used to collect and disseminate health information. The article proposes 10 specific examples, including biomedical device data capture and reporting; diabetes management; drug safety alerts from the FDA; post-discharge consultations and follow-up and shift-bidding for health workers.
The authors also notes that services connecting patients with clinical trials, such as TrialX [1], make use of Twitter to communicate with prospective participants.
To learn more about this trend:
- read this iHealthBeat.org piece [2]
Related Articles:
Turning Twitter into a market research tool [3]
Dr. Jason Bhan: Social media allows us to become more efficient [4]
Links:
[1] http://www.trialx.com
[2] http://www.ihealthbeat.org/Articles/2009/8/26/Twitter-Provides-New-Outlet-for-Health-Data-Sharing-Article-Says.aspx
[3] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/turning-twitter-market-research-tool/2009-06-29
[4] http://www.hospitalimpact.org/index.php/2009/08/19/title_13