Cancer Communication in the Social Media Age

Sedrak, Mina S.; Cohen, Roger B.; Merchant, Raina M.; Schapira, Marilyn M.

doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2015.5475

Cited by 74 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…It is uniquely suited to foster engagement of patients, providers, scientists, patient advocates, and health policy leaders with similar interests and facilitate an informational support infrastructure online [17]; [18]; [19]; [20]; [21]. These communities allow all who are impacted by a particular disease to share their experiences.…”

Section: Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risks and benefits of Twitter use by hematologists/oncologists in the era of digital medicine

Attai

Anderson

Fisch³

et al. 2017

Seminars in Hematology

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Twitter use by physicians, including those in the hematology – oncology field, is increasing. This microblogging platform provides a means to communicate and collaborate on a global scale. For the oncology professional, an active Twitter presence provides opportunities for continuing medical education, patient engagement and education, personal branding, and reputation management. However, because Twitter is an open, public forum, potential risks such as patient privacy violations, personal information disclosures, professionalism lapses, and time management need to be considered and managed. The authors have summarized the benefits and risks of Twitter use by the hematology – oncology physician. In addition, strategies to maximize benefit and minimize risk are discussed, and resources for additional learning are provided.

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Section: Benefitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risks and benefits of Twitter use by hematologists/oncologists in the era of digital medicine

Attai

Anderson

Fisch³

et al. 2017

Seminars in Hematology

Self Cite

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“…Moreover, the qualitative and quantitative relevance of tweets has been shown in various investigations, including analyses of the interests and feelings of the general population with respect to health/disease, the interactions between patients and doctors/health providers and the generation of the scientific impact of medical research in the news media. Furthermore, patient attitudes toward various medical topics, including vaccines, illnesses, pain, drug use, and both oncological and cardiovascular disease, have been analyzed [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Consequently, the analysis of distributed tweets by primary social media channels on mental health disease and the frequency of retweets generated may be effective tools for assessing social and individual interest toward psychiatric diseases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Interest of Mass Communication Media and the General Public in the Distribution of Tweets About Mental Disorders: Observational Study (Preprint)

Alvarez-Mon¹,

Barco²,

Lahera³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Background: The contents of classical communication media and new Internet social media reflect the interests of society. Barriers and a lack of attention for mental diseases have been previously observed. Objective: To measure the relevance given by the main American social communication media (ASCM) to psychiatric information and the interest generated in their Twitter followers. Methods: We investigated the tweets generated about mental health conditions and disease by 15 main United States of America (USA) general communication media from January 2007 to December 2016. Our study strategy focused on identifying several psychiatric terms of main interest. The number of retweets generated by the selected tweets was also investigated. For a control, we used tweets generated about the main causes of death in the USA, the main chronic neurological degenerative diseases and infection by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Results: In total, 13,119 tweets sent by the ASCM about mental health disorders show a heterogeneous distribution with preferential accumulation in a reduced number of conditions. Suicide and gender dysphoria accumulated half of the number of sent tweets. Variability in the number of tweets related to each control disease was also found (5,998). The number of tweets sent regarding each different psychiatric or organic disease analyzed was significantly correlated with the number of retweets generated by followers (1,030,974 and 424,813 responses to metal health disorders and organic diseases, respectively). However, the probability of a tweet being retweeted was statistically different between the conditions and diseases analyzed. Furthermore, the retweeted/tweet ratio was significantly higher in psychiatric diseases than in the control organic diseases (OR=1.11 [1.07-1.14], p<0.001). Conclusions: According to the use of Twitter, the ASCM and the general public demonstrate a preferential interest for psychiatric diseases. The heterogeneous weight given by the ASCM to the different mental health disorders and conditions is reflected in the response of Twitter followers.

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“…Currently, approximately 12% of trials listed on clinicaltrials.gov are terminated early, more than one-half because of insufficient accrual. 4 Cooperative groups, in particular the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), were early adopters of using social media to increase awareness of their clinical trials. Social media offers a more widespread, rapid, and cost-effective means of recruitment using both passive and active methodology.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 Traditional methods of clinical trial recruitment can be passive (such as posting recruitment materials in the clinic so that patients can contact the study team) or active (in which the researchers directly approach the patient). 4 There are definitive concerns about using social media platforms to recruit patients onto clinical trials. The vast majority of Americans are online, with four-fifths using the Internet to acquire health-related information.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sedrak and colleagues noted that, although patients with cancer frequently used the Internet to get information about therapies, less than 20% of the information gathered was related to clinical trials, and there were minimal links back to trial recruitment sites. 4 There are definitive concerns about using social media platforms to recruit patients onto clinical trials. Most of these concerns relate to issues of privacy, confidentiality, and transparency, in which sensitive health information can be made Corresponding author: Ruth M. O'Regan, MD,…”

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confidence: 99%

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Social media and clinical trials: The pros and cons gain context when the patient is at the center

Thompson

O'Regan

2018

Cancer

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Less than 10% of patients in the United States enroll in clinical trials, and even lower rates are noted among minority populations. Barriers to recruitment include lack of awareness, strictness of eligibility, and practical concerns, including travel distance and financial costs. The widespread use of social media offers the potential to use dynamic communication mechanisms to reach large, diverse populations-increasing awareness and ultimately accrual to clinical trialsand can be more user friendly than the existing (usually static) online resources. In addition, social media platforms can be used for the dissemination of clinical trial information to participants, ultimately including trial results. However, the use of social media in this setting is not without risks both to interested individuals and to the integrity of the clinical trial. Given the importance of this topic, the National Institutes of Health recently hosted a 2-day workshop entitled At the Crossroads of Social Media and Clinical Trials: A Workshop on the Future of Clinician, Patient, and Community Engagement. 1 When considering the pros and cons of communicating about clinical trials with social media, we should try to place patients at the center to understand the context. If there are issues with clinical trial design or execution, then we need to think about how we develop and operate clinical trials and not blame the patients, who are volunteer participants.

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Cancer Communication in the Social Media Age

Cited by 74 publications

References 4 publications

Risks and benefits of Twitter use by hematologists/oncologists in the era of digital medicine

Risks and benefits of Twitter use by hematologists/oncologists in the era of digital medicine

Increasing Interest of Mass Communication Media and the General Public in the Distribution of Tweets About Mental Disorders: Observational Study (Preprint)

Social media and clinical trials: The pros and cons gain context when the patient is at the center

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