Using Twitter can help prepare doctors to answer questions from their patients, researchers from the University of British Columbia say.

The study, Finally, We Can Grow Spines: Stem Cells on Twitter, was presented Saturday at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, claims an increasing number of physicians are embracing social media.

"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," Prof. Julie Robillard, the studys lead author, said.

Robillard and fourth-year psychology student Emanuel Cabral spent six months monitoring conversations on Twitter surrounding stem cell research related to spinal cord injury and Parkinson's disease. They found the majority of tweets were about research findings, particularly the ones perceived as medical breakthroughs.

The study also found that users tweeting about spinal cord injury talked about clinical trials, while users who tweet about Parkinson's disease mostly talked about new tools or methods being developed to conduct research.

"We expected to see debate on stem cell controversy," says Robillard. "But people are sharing ideas of hope and expectations much more than anything else."

View original post here:
Twitter the right prescription for sharing health research: UBC study