Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2022

Publication Title

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

Abstract

Background: Social media platforms are used in contemporary crowdsourcing, and Twitter is apt for reaching a large number of people with a common interest. Users, especially those with a small follower count may find it challenging to reach a large audience. #AskRenal was developed as a Twitter crowdsourcing tool to help users get answers to nephrology questions. We hypothesized that the #AskRenal hashtag could be used by anyone to receive helpful and timely responses to simple or complex nephrology questions posed on the social media platform. Methods: A Twitter account @AskRenal, and an online Twitter bot that automatically retweeted any new tweets containing the hashtag #AskRenal were created. Using the Symplur Healthcare Hashtag tool, we extracted and analyzed public Twitter content containing the hashtag #AskRenal posted between Dec 2016 to Aug 2020. Tweets were excluded if they were duplicates, retweets, or if the tweet content was not the form of an original question. A group of 15 medical professionals reviewed #AskRenal tweets individually and a 10-question survey was completed for each one. Results: During the study period, there were 17,704 tweets containing the hashtag #AskRenal and 3099 were included in the survey analysis. We found that 40% (1228/3099) of #AskRenal questions were posed by users with < 1000 followers and 9% (270/3099) were from students and trainees. The questions were spread across a wide range of nephrology topics. Over 75% (2386/3099) of the #AskRenal questions garnered a response, and answers came quickly with 69% (1644/2386) receiving a reply within 6 hours of posting. The reviewers found these responses to be helpful in answering the original questions 83% (1978/2386) of the time. The inclusion of hyperlinks and images in the reply was associated with a helpful answer (p < 0.001) and a higher follower count was not significantly associated with the probability of obtaining a helpful answer. Conclusions: We demonstrated that a targeted hashtag and a dedicated Twitter account that retweets the hashtag automatically can be used to garner timely and helpful responses by a wide range of individuals, irrespective of follower count, seeking answers to nephrology questions.

Volume

33

Issue

(Abstract Suppl)

First Page

15

Comments

Kidney Week 2022, American Society of Nephrology Annual Meeting, November 3-6, 2022, Orlando, FL.

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