This document discusses how health professionals can use Twitter effectively. It provides tips on setting up a profile, elements of an excellent tweet, and how to find and evaluate accounts to follow for usable health information. Suggestions are given for following thought leaders, institutions, journals, and using hashtags and conferences to stay informed. The document advocates using Twitter to keep up to date, learn different perspectives, and make professional connections in the health field.

1. Twitter for Health
Professionals
ELAINE ATTRIDGE, MLS, CLINICAL SERVICES LIAISON
KIMBERLEY R. BARKER, MLIS, LIBRARIAN FOR DIGITAL LIFE
CLAUDE MOORE HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARY, UVA

2. Elaine & Kimberley use Twitter
differently.

3. How Kimberley uses Twitter
 Promote my work (emerging technology/healthcare &
issues of digital life & librarianship
 Make a clear statement about who I am/what I stand
for
 Promote/be involved with causes about which I care
 Meet people & connect with them- conferences!
 Teach people how to use the platform

4. Twitter Elements
 Profiles
 Choosing a handle: @____
 Profile photo
 Cover photo
 Tweets
 140 characters
 Hashtags #

5. Getting started
Your profile page, aka
The Page of Opportunities

7. Profile
Handle/username: @____
You can change this
Profile photo
Change yearly if obvious changes
Cover photo
Change as you see fit

8. Profile, cont’d
 Biography/description
Twitter indexes the terms you use; make
it easy to be found
Location
Link to a website- Twitter is a fish hook!
Pinned tweet

9. Elements of an excellent tweet

10. Elements of an excellent tweet
Image from
Social Media Hat

11. Tweet Karma

12. How I made the tweet better
 Added a hashtag
 Shortened the link to the article
 Tweeted it to my 2K+ followers
 Tagged the Journal of Neurosurgery
JNS retweeted it to its 9K+ followers

13. Elements of a good tweet add up!
Original tweeter:

14.  Me:

15.  Journal of Neurosurgery

16. And just to make it even better…
I shared the anecdote on my personal
Facebook page
Junior Faculty program organizer saw
my status update
She sent an email summarizing it to the
head of Faculty Development

17. EVEN BETTER!
 The head of Faculty Development
forwarded it to the surgeon’s Chair (and
also to my boss)
 The Chair replied congratulating the
surgeon, and expressing more interest in
Twitter

18. Chats
Find regularly-scheduled Twitter chats:
#foamed #pedurojc
#endochat #bioethx
#ASHPchat #hpmglobal

19. Finding Usable
Health Information
on Twitter
ELAINE ATTRIDGE, MLS

20. I Use Twitter to
• Keep up to date
• Learn different perspectives
• Make connections

21. How to Find Information on
Twitter
Follow thought leaders in your field
•Suggestions
•Search

22. Locating People to Follow

23. How to Evaluate Who to
Follow
• Read their profile
• How many followers
• Number of posts in the past three
weeks
• Review past posts

24. How to Evaluate Who to
Follow

25. Locating People to Follow
A few suggestions:
• @kevinmd (general)
• @jSchuurMD (ER)
• @mdaware (ER)
• @carlosdelrio7 (Infectious Disease)
• @davidhackham (Surgery)
• @drmlb (Surgery)

26. Follow Institutions

27. Follow Journals

28. Journal Clubs

29. How to Find Information on
Twitter
• Hashtags
• Healthcare hashtag project
• Conference information-sharing

30. Searching Twitter

31. Thank you!
Questions?
Email:
Elaine@Virginia.edu
Kimberley@Virginia.edu