Tweets tracked in US health study

7 July 2011 Last updated at 10:53 GMT The study revealed trends about allergies Twitter could become a useful source of information about health, according to US researchers.

Two John Hopkins University computer scientists studied 1.5 million health-related tweets between May 2009 and October 2010.

It provided an insight into how Twitter users viewed a range of illnesses and how they went about treating themselves.

It also showed that many chose the wrong drugs to tackle common ailments.

"Tweets showed us that some serious medical misperceptions exist out there," said PhD student Michael J. Paul who helped run the research project.

"We found that some people tweeted that they were taking antibiotics for the flu," he said. "But antibiotics don't work on the flu, which is a virus, and this practice could contribute to the growing antibiotic resistance problems."

Headache

To find health-related posts among the billions of messages sent during the study period, the researchers devised a special filtering tool.

The computer program was taught to disregard phrases that did not really relate to health, even though they contained a word commonly used in a health context - such as "high price of gas is a headache for my business".

In about 200,000 of the health-related tweets, publicly available information meant the researchers could identify which US state they came from.

This allowed them to identify health trends across the US.

"We were able to see that the allergy season started earlier in the warmer states and later in the Midwest and Northeast," said Professor Mark Dredze.

But both scientists acknowledged that there were limitations to what they could discover about health issues via Twitter.

Often they found that tweeters did not comment more than once on a particular ailment.

"We could only learn what people were willing to share and we think there's a limit to what people are willing to share on Twitter," said Mr Paul.

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Scottish health app surprise hit

21 June 2011 Last updated at 05:59 GMT By Eleanor Bradford BBC Scotland Health Correspondent The SIGN app can be downloaded to iphones, android phones and hand-held computers A new app for smartphones and tablets designed by the Scottish NHS has become one of the most popular free medical apps available for download.

It outlines what kind of care patients should expect when they suffer from particular medical conditions.

The SIGN app (SIGN stands for the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) was the idea of Prof John Kinsella.

He works in intensive care at Glasgow's Royal Infirmary, and is also a member of an NHS organisation called Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

Prof Kinsella realised he needed a quicker way of accessing the latest NHS guidelines.

"The problem is that clinical guidance is sometimes in a paper form which is difficult to find, or it can be accessed on the internet which means logging in and often you've got to log out of some other programme first," he said.

"In that period you are losing valuable time when you should be doing some other task. It is basically a delay, and sometimes a delay prevents you from doing it at all."

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The real advantage is that these guidelines are easy to access by members of the public”

End Quote Prof John Kinsella Healthcare Improvement Scotland Mobile phones no longer interfere with medical equipment, meaning doctors and other medical staff can use smartphones and hand-held tablet computers while working on the ward.

The app, which was initially available for iPhones but is now also available to Android phones, has proved a surprise hit.

It offers guidelines on a wide range of conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, diabetes and the management of asthma and psoriasis.

Although it has not been advertised, it has been downloaded more than 8,000 times since it was launched in April.

"The real advantage is that these guidelines are easy to access by members of the public," said Prof Kinsella.

"It is entirely logical that if you have a certain condition, it is very useful for you to be able to look up what care you should expect to receive.

"This empowers patients and makes the discussion between the doctor and patient much more well informed."

As well as being a useful gadget if you live in the UK, the app is also being downloaded by smartphone users all over the world.

The SIGN app makes information available to health professionals and members of the public

Dr Helena Liira is a GP in Finland.

She said: "I could use it to update my information on the diseases that are covered. I can check whether my practice is according to the guidelines.

"I cannot use it for all purposes because it only covers, at the moment, 11 topics so it is quite limited but it is a good way to check what's going on in these important diseases."

As NHS Scotland produces more guidance on a larger range of conditions the SIGN app will be updated.

The app also has the potential to save the NHS money by being more environmentally friendly.

Until now Healthcare Improvement Scotland has had to print more than 15,000 paper copies of every guideline it produces.

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