J Travel Med. 2016 Mar 16;23(3). doi: 10.1093/jtm/taw002. Print 2016 Mar.

Twitter for travel medicine providers.

Journal of travel medicine

Deborah J Mills, Sarah E Kohl

PMID: 26988200 DOI: 10.1093/jtm/taw002

Abstract

Travel medicine practitioners, perhaps more so than medical practitioners working in other areas of medicine, require a constant flow of information to stay up-to-date, and provide best practice information and care to their patients. Many travel medicine providers are unaware of the popularity and potential of the Twitter platform. Twitter use among our travellers, as well as by physicians and health providers, is growing exponentially. There is a rapidly expanding body of published literature on this information tool. This review provides a brief overview of the ways Twitter is being used by health practitioners, the advantages that are peculiar to Twitter as a platform of social media, and how the interested practitioner can get started. Some key points about the dark side of Twitter are highlighted, as well as the potential benefits of using Twitter as a way to disseminate accurate medical information to the public. This article will help readers develop an increased understanding of Twitter as a tool for extracting useful facts and insights from the ever increasing volume of health information.

© International Society of Travel Medicine, 2016. All rights reserved. Published by Oxford University Press. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected].

Keywords: Twitter; hashtag; healthcare providers; social media; social networking; travel medicine; tweet

MeSH terms

• Health Personnel / education
• Humans
• Social Media / statistics & numerical data
• Social Networking*
• Travel Medicine / methods

Publication Types

• Journal Article
• Review