Twitter is a microblogging service where people answer the question "What are you doing?" via 140-character messages from their cellphone, laptop or desktop.Twitter is growing by 400% per year and is used by people ranging from Lance Armstrong to a past president of ACAAI, including Al Gore and Shaquille O'Neal in between. World-famous medical institutions such as Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic also have Twitter accounts.
Twitter to collect and share notes from conferences, Journal Club and Grand Rounds
Twitter works well for creating a searchable, "no login required" archive of notes.
A hash tag is the little code preceded by a "#" that people use to indicate the topic about which they are Twittering. The idea is to ensure that tweets on the same topic can be found and aggregated more easily. Simply search for a particular hashtag on search.twitter.com. In order to make the Twitter postings (or "tweets") easily searchable, I included the hash tag "#JCAllergy" with each tweet.Journal Club on Twitter
On December 11, 2008, I used my cell phone to send text messages to Twitter as the Journal Club progressed at the Creighton University Division of Allergy and Immunology. The updates were followed in real time by the Allergy and Immunology fellows at the Louisiana State University (Shreveport) and some interested residents at Cleveland Clinic, along with the 309 subscribers of my Twitter account named AllergyNotes.
This is the first use of Twitter to take notes from Journal Club and share information with other fellows from the U.S. and around the world. Please use the comments section below the post to share your feedback.
The Twitter updates are in reverse chronological order (the oldest post is at the bottom, the newest at the top):
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Article 5: The safety of LABAs among patients with asthma using inhaled corticosteroids http://tinyurl.com/65voxd
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Article 4: Observations on the physiological interactions between obesity and asthma http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Article 3: Evidence of a causal role of winter virus infection during infancy in early childhood asthma http://tinyurl.com/5tjkgm
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Article 2: Early consumption of peanuts in infancy associated with a low prevalence of peanut allergy http://tinyurl.com/5bkvxc
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Article 1: IL-33 induces Ag-specific IL-5+ T cells and promotes airway inflammation independent of IL-4 http://tinyurl.com/5d4ku7
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Studies that found increased deaths/hospitalizations w LABAs included patients not on ICS.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy LABAs do not have antiinflammatory effects on the airways. LABAs should not be used without ICS.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy In asthmatics on ICS, LABA didn't increase asthma-related hospitalizations according to 2008 meta-analysis - 62 studies, 29k pts
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Obesity by itself does not increase airway hyperresponsiveness.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Obesity: As you grow bigger, your lung volumes become smaller.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Asthma and obesity influence respiratory system through different pathways.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Asthma and obesity have both increased during the last 25 years. Are they related? Anything special about the combination?
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Why higher asthma risk with fall births? Due to winter viral infections, e.g. bronchiolitis.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Study: 95,000 children studied during 5 winters - children born in the fall had the highest asthma risk.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Prevalence of asthma increased 100% from 1985 to 2001 worldwide. 300 million people have asthma, 225,000 die each year.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Pro-calcitonin (PCT) is a rapid 30-min test able to distinguish between invasive bacterial and viral infection in sepsis.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy #peanut allergy The LEAP study will be completed in 2014.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy #peanut allergy No recommendation to start early feeding of infants with peanuts to prevent PA until results of LEAP study in ...
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AllergyNotes #Asthma FDA: LABAs to stay on the market in combination ICS/LABA.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy What percentage of airway inflammation is related to IL 33? Can an anti-IL 33 agent be used for asthma therapy in the future?
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Useful mnemonic to remember some of the interleukine effects is Hot T Bone stEAk.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy IL 33 is a potent activator of CD4 cells that produce IL 5 and IL 13 thus promoting airway inflammation.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy IL 33 is a newly discovered cytokine produced by endothelial cells.
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AllergyNotes #JCAllergy Will use Twitter to take notes from Journal Club today. The hashtag will be #JCAllergy
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Video: Twitter in Plain English by CommonCraft.
Twitter can be used to gather feedback before and after Journal Club or Grand Rounds. See 2 examples below:
Announcing the topic for Journal Club and Twitter community responses
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AllergyNotes Early consumption of peanuts in infancy is associated with a low prevalence of peanut allergy http://tinyurl.com/54twyx
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mikekirkwood @AllergyNotes so the question really is "To Peanut, or not to Peanut". Interesting that PA was so high. 10x Peanut Allergies in UK.
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rlbates @AllergyNotes So we need to rethink keeping peanut butter away from infants and toddlers? Interesting
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wheezemd Journal Club with UT Allergy Fellows this AM. Will review peanut consumption early in life decreases peanut allergy and 2 other articles.
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AllergyNotes @chrisseper "At my son's lunchroom pictures of kids with allergies hang on the wall like police mugshots"
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What is the best hashtag for Journal Club on Twitter?
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AllergyNotes @sandnsurf "Agreed #Allergy... best way to proceed" -- I should have asked you before I posted all those updates with the other hashtag :-)
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sandnsurf @AllergyNotes Agreed #Allergy... best way to proceed
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AllergyNotes I think I should be using the hashtag #AllergyJC rather than #JCAllergy. Same with #AllergyGR for Grand Rounds. What do you think?
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References:
Twitter Updates from the Severe Asthma Workshop at the 2008 Annual Meeting of American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI)
Twitter Dispatches from the New England Journal of Medicine's Horizons Conference. The Efficient MD.
I will be attending NEJM Horizons Conference to push the boundaries of traditional medical publishing, suggestions welcomed
Allergists Can Use Twitter Microblogging Service to Send Patient Reminders
Using Twitter to Microblog a CME Meeting
A Doctor's Opinion: Why I Started Microblogging on Twitter
Related:
As Web-enabled smartphones have become standard, the etiquette of using them during meetings is up for debate. http://bit.ly/311Ls1. NYTimes, 2009.Model for a Journal Club using Google Reader and Facebook http://goo.gl/rnw2P - Great summary by @Neil_Mehta
Related:
As Web-enabled smartphones have become standard, the etiquette of using them during meetings is up for debate. http://bit.ly/311Ls1. NYTimes, 2009.Model for a Journal Club using Google Reader and Facebook http://goo.gl/rnw2P - Great summary by @Neil_Mehta
Twitter Journal Club http://goo.gl/mGvBM - We need to go beyond this 1950s model rather than adapt it to social media.
#dermpathJC: The First Online Dermatopathology Twitter Journal Club http://bit.ly/2DVW0xu.
#dermpathJC: The First Online Dermatopathology Twitter Journal Club http://bit.ly/2DVW0xu.