How You can use Twitter as a Tool for PhD Health Research - Phdassistance.com
                     HOW YOU CAN USE  
TWITTER AS A TOOL 
FOR  PHD HEALTH 
RESEARCH
An Academic presentation by
Dr. Nancy Agens, Head, Technical Operations, 
Phdassistance  Group www.phdassistance.com
Email: info@phdassistance.com
TODAY'S 
DISCUSSION
Outlin In Brief
e Reality of the Virtual World- an Oxymoron
“Tweet” “Tweet”  
What to Use and 
How  Future 
Scopes  
Conclusion
In 
Brief
We explore the rapidly growing field of using social media 
 especially Twitter as a source of data for Health and
 Medicine related Research. The types of data available and  
their application, the limitations in Methodology and standard 
 guidelines with future areas of research are highlighted.
Reality of the Virtual World- an 
Oxymoron
The virtual world is brimming with Information and knowledge whose scope is much 
 beyond one had imagined even till five years ago.
In their attempts to find comprehensive databases, health workers and researchers
are tapping the potential of these major interactive sites.
These sites transcend geography and hold the potential in providing significant 
data
related to population health, preferences, trends, and behaviour patterns.
Predominant among these are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter with Twitter being 
 the most used for public health research.
Twitte
r
Twitter is a social media interacting site termed as ‘SMS of the internet’.
It is the most widely used social medium for Research related to Healthcare, because 
 of the ease of access to huge amount of data available to open access.
Tweets are consistent in length, machine learning methods work better, 
 Data is real-time, making time series analysis possible,
Interaction between people allows better network analysis, 
 Almost 100% data available through API,
Any user can follow another user.
Twitter is the one that has attracted Academics and Researchers the most, making it a 
 powerful tool for research data.
What to Use and 
How?
 Content analysis – here body of text is analysed and information relevant to 
the  topic is used.
 Sentiment analysis – The positive or negative agreement to the topic in question 
is
analysed and data is used.
 Image analysis –Assessment of images in the body of the text is analysed in 
the  context of the topic.
 Surveillance – Monitoring the level of activity related to the topic in relation to 
the  background level of activity.
 Prediction – Estimating prevalence of a condition.
Contd..
 Engagement–Ability of a topic to engage users to tweet, retweet and remain 
engaged  in the discussion with other users.
 Network analysis – Assessing interaction between users on a topic.
 Recruitment – Using the platform to recruit subjects for a research study.
 Intervention - Using the platform to intervene in a research study.
 Ethical discussion - Studying the need for approvals from ethical boards.
 Funding – Database of organizations funding research work.
 Computing Dissertation topic selection performed on the Twitter-based 
research
is commonly related to public health, infectious disease and psychiatry.
Future 
Scopes
There needs to be uniform reporting procedures clearly defined and agreed upon.
Criteria for validity, reliability and scalability of Twitter-driven data need to be studied 
 and several organizations are actively involved in funding such research.
Privacy of data and ethical issues is a broad field where clear-cut guidelines are 
needed.
 Machine learning involving data scientists for better understanding of the 
demographic  data of the users participating in the research.
Studying the effectiveness of using Twitter-based data for medical research.
Conclusio
n
Twitter-based Medical Research is a rapidly growing niche area with publications
almost doubling year on year in the last 2-3 years.
The huge database with open access along with opportunity for recruitment and 
 intervention are the major selling points for Twitter compared to the other social 
 media sites.
The most significant being the lack of standard reporting protocols and there is an 
 urgent need to address this with uniform guidelines.
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Us
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om