Healthcare hashtag index development: Identifying global impact in social media
A healthcare social media research article published in Journal of Biomedical Informatics, September 30, 2016
- Title
- Healthcare hashtag index development: Identifying global impact in social media
- Authors (alpha)
- Ana Luu00edsa Neves, Christofer Patrick Reichel, Hassna Errami, Kenneth Yakubu, Kyle Hoedebecke, Liliana Laranjo, Luu00eds Pinho-Costa, Maria del C. Colon-Gonzalez
- Published
- September 30, 2016
- Journal
- Journal of Biomedical Informatics
- Impact Factor
- 2.447
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jbi.2016.09.010
- Pubmed
- 27645323
- Altmetric
Abstract
Create an index of global reach for healthcare hashtags and tweeters therein, filterable by topic of interest. For this proof-of-concept study we focused on the field of Primary Care and Family Medicine. Six hashtags were selected based on their importance, from the ones included in the 'Healthcare Hashtag Project'. Hashtag Global Reach (HGR) was calculated using the additive aggregation of five weighted, normalized indicator variables: number of impressions, tweets, tweeters, user locations, and user languages. Data were obtained for the last quarter of 2014 and first quarter of 2015 using Symplur Signals. Topic-specific HGR were calculated for the top 10 terms and for sets of quotes mapped after a thematic analysis. Individual Global Reach, IGR, was calculated across hashtags as additive indexes of three indicators: replies, retweets and mentions. Using the HGR score we were able to rank six selected hashtags and observe their performance throughout the study period. We found that #PrimaryCare and #FMRevolution had the highest HGR score in both quarters; interestingly, #FMChangeMakers experienced a marked increase in its global visibility during the study period. "Health Policy" was the commonest theme, while "Care", "Family" and "Health" were the most common terms. This is the first study describing an altmetric hashtag index. Assuming analytical soundness, the Index might prove generalizable to other healthcare hashtags. If released as a real-time business intelligence tool with customizable settings, it could aid publishing and strategic decisions by netizens, organizations, and analysts. IGR could also serve to augment academic evaluation and professional development. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of using an index on the global reach of healthcare hashtags and tweeters.
Altmetric
The Altmetric Attention Score is based on the attention a research article gets on the internet. Each coloured thread in the circle represents a different type of online attention and the number in the centre is the Altmetric Attention Score. The score is calculated based on two main sources of online attention: social media and mainstream news media.
Healthcare Social Media Research
See the full list of healthcare social media research articles with data from or reference to Symplur.
#hcsmR is a collaboration between Stanford Medicine X and Symplur.
