Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic Hospital, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
Montefiore Headache Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.
Headache. 2019 Apr;59(4):518-531. doi: 10.1111/head.13500. Epub 2019 Mar 20.
To describe and analyze Twitter activity associated with American Headache Society (AHS) conferences and evaluate the potential for Twitter to promote education and public outreach.
Many medical and scientific conferences have adopted Twitter as a method of promoting discussion among attendees as well as increasing visibility. Relatively little is known, however, about the composition of conference Twitter activity, the participants, and the impact on broader Twitter discussions.
We analyzed Twitter data from 5 AHS conferences held from 2014 to 2016 using their respective hashtags. Using the Symplur Healthcare Hashtags open social media search platform, we gathered data on numbers of tweets, impressions, participants, and mentions during a 10-day period surrounding each conference, as well as samples of Twitter accounts participating. Prominent accounts were categorized as individual medical professionals, other individuals, host organizations, health-related organizations, medical centers, and industry by cross-checking their Twitter profiles and conference registration lists. Larger samples of accounts participating in the 2016 conferences were also obtained and categorized similarly, with individual person accounts classified by conference registration status. A related prominent hashtag (#migraine) was also identified and Twitter usage before, during, and after each conference was analyzed to evaluate the impact of conference activity on broader Twitter conversations.
Nineteen thousand nine hundred thirty-six tweets were generated across the 5 conferences, with 11,531 (58%) created by the Top 10 participating accounts in each conference, which were primarily individual medical professionals and host organizations. Thirty-two million six hundred eighty-three thousand impressions were generated across the 5 conferences, with 24,656,000 (75%) coming from the Top 10 participants in each, particularly host organizations and other individuals. An average of 331 accounts participated in each conference. The Top 10 mentioned accounts in each conference (consisting of 21 unique accounts with 14 accounts in the Top 10 across multiple conferences, primarily individual medical professionals) received a total of 15,093 mentions. Among 135 unique accounts participating actively in the two 2016 conferences, 39% were individual medical professionals, 38% other individuals, 16% health-related organizations (including the 2 host organizations), 4% medical centers, and 2% industry. From these samples, 34 of 70 (49%) and 43 of 66 (65%) individual person accounts participating in the Twitter discussion at each conference were not registered conference attendees, indicating substantial outside participation via Twitter. #migraine usage during conferences showed a significant increase from baseline in number of tweets (6080 in a 10-day period vs 3721, P < .0001) and participants (2332 vs 1830, P < .0001) but the increase was not significant for impressions (30,155 vs 25,361, P = .240).
Consistent with the dynamics of Twitter conversations on other topics, AHS conference discussions featured a small group of accounts creating the bulk of content, with individual medical professionals and host organizations generating the largest shares of tweets and mentions while host organizations and other individuals produced the most impressions. Participating accounts were mainly individuals and health-related organizations, with more non-attendee participants than expected. Conference Twitter activity correlated with a significant increase in #migraine usage, suggesting a perceptible influence on the discussion of health-related topics beyond the conference itself.
描述和分析与美国头痛学会 (AHS) 会议相关的 Twitter 活动，并评估 Twitter 在促进教育和公众外展方面的潜力。
许多医学和科学会议已经采用 Twitter 作为促进与会者之间讨论以及提高知名度的一种方法。然而，人们对会议 Twitter 活动的组成部分、参与者以及对更广泛的 Twitter 讨论的影响了解甚少。
我们使用各自的主题标签，使用 Symplur Healthcare Hashtags 开放社交媒体搜索平台，分析了 2014 年至 2016 年举行的 5 次 AHS 会议的 Twitter 数据。在会议前后的 10 天内，我们收集了关于推文数量、印象、参与者和提及次数的数据，以及参与会议的 Twitter 账户样本。通过交叉检查他们的 Twitter 个人资料和会议注册列表，确定了突出的账户，将其分为个人医疗专业人员、其他个人、主办组织、与健康相关的组织、医疗中心和行业。在 2016 年的会议上，还获得了更大的参与账户样本，并以类似的方式进行了分类，根据会议注册状态对个人账户进行了分类。还确定了一个相关的突出主题标签 (#migraine)，并分析了会议前后的 Twitter 使用情况，以评估会议活动对更广泛的 Twitter 对话的影响。
在 5 次会议中生成了 19936 条推文，其中 11531 条（58%）是每个会议中排名前 10 的参与账户创建的，这些账户主要是个人医疗专业人员和主办组织。在 5 次会议中产生了 3268.3 万次印象，其中 2465.6 万次（75%）来自每个会议中排名前 10 的参与者，尤其是主办组织和其他个人。平均每个会议有 331 个账户参与。每个会议中排名前 10 的提及账户（由 21 个唯一账户组成，其中 14 个账户在多个会议中排名前 10，主要是个人医疗专业人员）共收到了 15093 次提及。在积极参与 2016 年两次会议的 135 个独特账户中，39%是个人医疗专业人员，38%是其他个人，16%是与健康相关的组织（包括 2 个主办组织），4%是医疗中心，2%是行业。从这些样本中，70 个个人账户中有 34 个（49%）和 66 个个人账户中有 43 个（65%）在每个会议的 Twitter 讨论中未注册为会议与会者，表明通过 Twitter 进行了大量外部参与。会议期间 #migraine 的使用情况显示，在 10 天的时间内，推文数量（从 6080 条增加到 3721 条，P < 0.0001）和参与者数量（从 2332 人增加到 1830 人，P < 0.0001）显著增加，但印象数量的增加不显著（从 30155 条增加到 25361 条，P = 0.240）。
与其他主题的 Twitter 对话动态一致，AHS 会议讨论的特点是一小部分账户创建了大部分内容，个人医疗专业人员和主办组织发布了最多的推文和提及，而主办组织和其他个人产生了最多的印象。参与的账户主要是个人和与健康相关的组织，非与会者参与者比预期的多。会议 Twitter 活动与 #migraine 使用的显著增加相关，这表明会议本身之外，对健康相关主题的讨论有明显的影响。
