Wondering what the Twitterverse's most commonly discussed health categories are? Well, look no further because Pixels & Pills, a collaborative effort between two pharmaceutical marketing firms, has developed a free visualization tool to measure online conversations surrounding a variety of medical topics.
The Health Tweeder uses search terms, hashtags and handles pertaining to a given disease state to pool results into a feed of Twitter updates. The keywords for different health categories populate a vibrant lab of colorful petri dishes, which you can click on to reveal the most recent health-related Tweets. "Growing and shrinking based on the volume of content at any one time, each dish, and all of them combined, provide a dynamic view of dialogue in real time," said Mike Myers, president of Palio, one of the collaborating firms.
Not only does the Health Tweeder provide a visually engaging glance at the most popular online medical categories, it allows users to dig deeper into topics of interest. For example, the dermatology feed will help me track the latest in skin care news for one of my clients. Additionally, the infectious disease and the women's health feeds will let me and my colleagues easily explore two growing areas of interest for our firm.
Another potential use for the Health Tweeder is explained by MedGadget: "Once more thoroughly developed, the tool may provide public health officials a better understanding of what the public is thinking and doing, such as during healthcare emergencies." Pixels & Pills sees the tool as a way to connect with patients, journalists and healthcare professionals as well as provide those with limited digital experience an easy-to-access display of relevant dialogue.
I don't imagine the Health Tweeder is comprehensive of all tweets being shared in a given disease category, but it certainly does give you a great snapshot of online medical chatter. Psychiatry, HIV, pediatrics, sleep disorders, infectious disease, women's health and diabetes are among the most commonly discussed medical categories.
Pixels & Pills encourages users to suggest new search terms that will expand the scope of their recently-launched Twitter database. If there is a health care topic of interest beyond the twenty or so currently being analyzed, feel free to connect with the tool's developers. According to their site, they love to collaborate, so this would be a great opportunity to interact with some of today's digital health leaders.
