The Social MEDia Course - Microblogging in Medicine

1. Anne Marie Cunningham March 25, 2012

Thanks for this Berci! I want to go back to the very start. What do you think of how the doctor responded to Conan O'Brien. Was this appropriate? I know his response was a joke. Was he trying to tell Conan that this was an inappropriate way to seek medical advice? What do you think?

2. Dr. Bertalan Mesko March 25, 2012

Great question, Anne Marie! I think the doctor's response was inappropriate. Even if he made a joke, he should have made it clear in a next tweet. Or at least he should separate his professional and personal profiles and make the joke from his personal one. What do you think?

3. Anne Marie Cunningham March 25, 2012

I guess that CO'B got many responses so I wasn't sure why you picked this one. I wouldn't have replied that way. Thinking through how we could respond in these circumstances could become an important part of the course in future iterations.

4. Dr. Bertalan Mesko March 26, 2012

I picked this example because it shows how the communication between doctors and patients is changing (more precisely, can be changed) in social media. This was not an appropriate response from the doctor. Do you think this conclusion is not clear in the prezi? I'm happy to make it clear then.

5. twitter and google as predictors of disease outbreaks July 30, 2012

Hi Berci,
I noted in the BJM youtube video that they said Twitter did pre-empt official, notifications of flu. However, recently you posted that the earlier finding of the same predictive value of google has since been disproved. I guess this is like much research - conflicting reports. My gut feeling is that Twitter and Google can predict infection outbreaks - it makes sense that people will seek information from free sources (google and friends) prior to going to the Dr. Do you have any thoughts on this?

6. Dr. Bertalan Mesko July 30, 2012

But those used different methods, that is the difference.

I have to agree with you, these platforms can have predictive value which might be useful outside medicine, but to use these in public health, they must be evaluated and Google Flu Trends lost this battle.

7. ZoltÃ¡n CserhÃ¡ti March 02, 2013

Dear Berci,

I think Tumblr has not such a big role as before, am I wrong?

Thank you

8. Dr. Bertalan Mesko March 02, 2013

Tumblr is still popular so we should leave it in, but I removed Posterous as it will stop providing service.

9. Cristina Martucci May 06, 2013

I've a "proud" user and fan of Twitter for a long time; at the beginning I used that for personal goals and hobbies; only recently I start following users in the Medicine field and I find it very useful in order to be up-to-date! I can read, comment and share interesting posts about new methods/drugs/clinical approaches and it's just great!
However I dislike tweetdeck: I don't appreciate the design and I think it's not so easily-approachable.

Best regards, Cristina

10. Cristina Martucci May 06, 2013

(*I've been)

11. Joanna Woerner May 22, 2013

I love the image of the Notificator in 1935 London! It's so interesting to think that we have been contemplating microblogging long before we had to the technology to support it. Funny too, how the glass plates look remarkable similar to a stream in Seesmic or Hootsuite.

12. Ilze July 05, 2013

Following WHO tweets already. Feeling up to date for sure! Looking forward to accomplish the course.

13. Dr. Bertalan Mesko July 06, 2013

I'm so glad you liked the lecture!