How the Diabetes Community Uses Social Media

[Northerner]

Attention, lovers of punny Twitter handles: Digitally savvy diabetics will thrill and delight. @crankypancreas, @_diabadass, and @ninjabetic are part of an enthusiastic group of bloggers and tweeters who share their stories, exchange articles, and cultivate diabetes wit online. But, sadly, their humor goes unheard by the doctors, researchers, and health-care companies who work on the disease. Online, these two communities are largely separate: While diabetics and their friends and family usually discuss what it's like to live with the disease, the professional medical community often circulates research findings and informational resources.

What does this mean for information sharing about diabetes?and health in general?on the Internet? John Kelly, chief scientist at Morningside Analytics, uses data about online sharing habits to track communities on the Internet. In this case, he turned to Twitter to track what kinds of links people share, which users retweet and mention one another, and what topics they discuss. The result is a partial "map" of how diabetes is talked about on the Internet: Each dot represents a Twitter handle, and the colors indicate groups of people who share statistically similar web-surfing habits.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...-diabetes-community-uses-social-media/280773/

 

[trophywench]

OMG, go and see your Consultant and he's itching to tweet all the time you are talking - it's bad enough being surrounded by people waggling there thumbs constantly everywhere else but pur-lease, let the Doc & DSN's offices remain an interwebnet haven!


(except when they're downloading me pump of course LOL)

 

[Northerner]

OMG, go and see your Consultant and he's itching to tweet all the time you are talking - it's bad enough being surrounded by people waggling there thumbs constantly everywhere else but pur-lease, let the Doc & DSN's offices remain an interwebnet haven!


(except when they're downloading me pump of course LOL)

My impression is that DSNs might be much more likely to look into social networking and how it can help patients, whereas you get the impression that a lot of consultants are in their ivory towers, suspicious of what we might be telling each other (with some justification probably, especially in some of the Facebook groups and Twitter, but less likely on well-moderated forums). Personally, I have seen so many people's lives transformed by forums such as this (for the better, I might add!) that I think it should be integral to any diabetes care plan. Plus a copy of Hanas for all newly-diagnosed (or lapsed!) T1s and a Gretchen for every T2 (plus an adequate supply of test strips! 🙂)

 

[Redkite]

Can I just say that I think "diabadass" is a great name!!

 

[AlisonM]

That's almost a reason to start tweeting. Who could I be I wonder? @Diahag maybe?

If the professionals would only read what the people who live with the condition are saying diabetes care would probably improve markedly.

 

[AlisonM]

Meet @_Diahag. I know I said I'd never do it, but I had to give it a go. Never realised the forum had a Twitter account.

 

[Northerner]

Meet @_Diahag. I know I said I'd never do it, but I had to give it a go. Never realised the forum had a Twitter account.

Yes, I don't tweet much at the moment, keep meaning to get back into it 🙂 There is a lot of dross, especially diabetes cure scams, but some usful links and conversations also 🙂