Toronto, Feb 15:

Using Twitter can help physicians be better prepared to answer questions from their patients, according to new research.

The study by researchers from the University of British Columbia has found more and more health care professionals are embracing social media.

This challenges common opinion that physicians are reluctant to jump on the social media bandwagon.

Many people go online for health information, but little research has been done on who is participating in these discussions or what is being shared, said Julie Robillard, lead author and neurology professor at UBCs National Core for Neuroethics and Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health.

Robillard and psychology student Emanuel Cabral spent six months monitoring conversations surrounding stem cell research related to spinal cord injury and Parkinsons disease on Twitter.

They found roughly 25 per cent of the tweets about spinal cord injury and 15 per cent of the tweets about Parkinsons disease were from health care professionals.

The study found the majority of tweets were about research findings, particularly the ones perceived as medical breakthroughs. The most shared content were links to research reports.

The study also found the users tweeting about spinal cord injury and Parkinsons disease differed.

Users who tweeted about spinal cord injury talked about clinical trials, while users who tweeted about Parkinsons disease mostly talked about new tools or methods being developed to conduct research.

The rest is here:
Twitter can help doctors treat patients better