Medical Institutions and Twitter: A Novel Tool for Public Communication in Japan.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service on the Internet. Medical professionals and patients have started to use Twitter in medicine. Twitter use by medical institutions can interactively and efficiently provide public health information and education for laypeople.

Objective

This study examined Twitter usage by medical institutions.

Methods

We reviewed all Japanese user accounts in which the names of medical institutions were described in the user's Twitter profile. We then classified medical institutions' tweets by content.

Results

We extracted 168 accounts for medical institutions with ≥500 followers. The medical specialties of those accounts were dentistry and oral surgery (n=73), dermatology (n=12), cosmetic surgery (n=10),

SUBMITTER: Sugawara Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4869231 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature