The Proof of the Pudding: First Results of a Primary Care Consultation Service on Twitter
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Abstract
Social media have seen a spectacular rise in use and popularity over the last few years. Since health is an important factor in anyone’s life, it comes as no surprise that a considerable part of the communication on social media is health related. This raises the question what role health professionals could and should play in the world of social media. Based on this idea two Dutch physicians assisted by a communication and IT specialist started a free primary care consultation service on Twitter, called @tweetspreekuur.
The service was launched in October 2009, during the Reshape09 conference in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, just a few weeks after the idea arose. Two concepts: “The Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating†and “Learning by Doing†made us decide to go ahead and start rather than spend much time and effort on project planning. The initiative attracted quite a bit of media attention, including coverage on the national television news. Similar consultation services have since then been initiated by a lawyer and a physiotherapist.
We will present a content analysis of our first year as Twitter G.P.’s. Preliminary findings show that consultations via Twitter encompass all areas of regular primary care practice. Questions and answers may vary from one to eight 140 character tweets with an average of three tweets per episode. About one thirds of the communication takes place on the public timeline, the other two thirds via the private Direct Message function. The option to log in to a secure web page for a more extensive e-consultation has been used only a few times.
Since the authors are also involved in research on client satisfaction, follow-up and outcome of telephone consultation (H. Derkx et al) and “classic†e-consultation (N. Nijland et al) in primary care, we will be able to make a comparison of the differences and similarities between these forms of consultation.
We will share thoughts, ideas and experiences on building a social network around a primary care social media consultation service. Finally we will discuss the possibilities and difficulties regarding implementation of such a service in regular healthcare, both practically and financially.
The service was launched in October 2009, during the Reshape09 conference in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, just a few weeks after the idea arose. Two concepts: “The Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating†and “Learning by Doing†made us decide to go ahead and start rather than spend much time and effort on project planning. The initiative attracted quite a bit of media attention, including coverage on the national television news. Similar consultation services have since then been initiated by a lawyer and a physiotherapist.
We will present a content analysis of our first year as Twitter G.P.’s. Preliminary findings show that consultations via Twitter encompass all areas of regular primary care practice. Questions and answers may vary from one to eight 140 character tweets with an average of three tweets per episode. About one thirds of the communication takes place on the public timeline, the other two thirds via the private Direct Message function. The option to log in to a secure web page for a more extensive e-consultation has been used only a few times.
Since the authors are also involved in research on client satisfaction, follow-up and outcome of telephone consultation (H. Derkx et al) and “classic†e-consultation (N. Nijland et al) in primary care, we will be able to make a comparison of the differences and similarities between these forms of consultation.
We will share thoughts, ideas and experiences on building a social network around a primary care social media consultation service. Finally we will discuss the possibilities and difficulties regarding implementation of such a service in regular healthcare, both practically and financially.
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