Department of Biostatistics, Yale University School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, United States.
OpenNotes, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2020 Oct 8;22(10):e22005. doi: 10.2196/22005.
The Brain Tumor Social Media (#BTSM) Twitter hashtag was founded in February 2012 as a disease-specific hashtag for patients with brain tumor.
To understand #BTSM's role as a patient support system, we describe user descriptors, growth, interaction, and content sharing.
We analyzed all tweets containing #BTSM from 2012 to 2018 using the Symplur Signals platform to obtain data and to describe Symplur-defined user categories, tweet content, and trends in use over time. We created a network plot with all publicly available retweets involving #BTSM in 2018 to visualize key stakeholders and their connections to other users.
From 2012 to 2018, 59,764 unique users participated in #BTSM, amassing 298,904 tweets. The yearly volume of #BTSM tweets increased by 264.57% from 16,394 in 2012 to 43,373 in 2018 with #BTSM constantly trending in the top 15 list of disease hashtags, as well the top 15 list of tweet chats. Patient advocates generated the most #BTSM tweets (33.13%), while advocacy groups, caregivers, doctors, and researchers generated 7.01%, 4.63%, 3.86%, and 3.37%, respectively. Physician use, although still low, has increased over time. The 2018 network plot of retweets including #BTSM identifies a number of key stakeholders from the patient advocate, patient organization, and medical researcher domains and reveals the extent of their reach to other users.
From its start in 2012, #BTSM has grown exponentially over time. We believe its growth suggests its potential as a global source of brain tumor information on Twitter for patients, advocates, patient organizations as well as health care professionals and researchers.
“脑肿瘤社交媒体”（#BTSM）推特标签于 2012 年 2 月作为脑肿瘤患者的特定疾病标签成立。
为了了解#BTSM作为患者支持系统的作用，我们描述了用户描述符、增长、互动和内容共享。
我们使用 Symplur Signals 平台分析了 2012 年至 2018 年所有包含#BTSM 的推文，以获取数据并描述 Symplur 定义的用户类别、推文内容以及随时间推移的使用趋势。我们创建了一个网络图，显示了 2018 年所有公开的涉及#BTSM 的转发，以可视化关键利益相关者及其与其他用户的联系。
从 2012 年到 2018 年，59764 名独特的用户参与了#BTSM，共发布了 298904 条推文。#BTSM 推文的年成交量从 2012 年的 16394 条增加到 2018 年的 43373 条，增长了 264.57%，并且#BTSM 一直位列疾病标签前 15 名和推文聊天前 15 名。患者倡导者发布了最多的#BTSM 推文（33.13%），而倡导团体、护理人员、医生和研究人员分别发布了 7.01%、4.63%、3.86%和 3.37%的推文。尽管医生的使用量仍然较低，但随着时间的推移有所增加。2018 年包含#BTSM 的转发网络图确定了一些来自患者倡导者、患者组织和医学研究人员领域的关键利益相关者，并揭示了他们与其他用户的联系程度。
从 2012 年成立以来，#BTSM 的规模呈指数级增长。我们相信，它的增长表明它有可能成为 Twitter 上脑肿瘤信息的全球来源，为患者、倡导者、患者组织以及医疗保健专业人员和研究人员提供服务。
