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Boston Children's Hospital is exploring how patients and staff could use Amazon's voice recognition system to improve care and save time.
The skill allows a user to seek general health information for common ailments and medication dosing from Boston Children's Hospital.
A user can seek information on medication dosing or common symptoms by interacting with Alexa and providing basic information about themselves. The person's details are never stored. It is powered by Thermia.io, a Boston Children's Hospital research product.
The skill provides general guidelines and is intended for informational and educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This skill does not provide individual medical advice. Call your doctor to receive medical advice. If you think you may have a medical emergency, immediately call your doctor or dial 911.
The Alexa Diabetes Challenge announced Sugarpod by Wellpepper as the $125,000 grand prize winner. Sugarpod is a concept for an interactive diabetes care plan solution that provides tailored tasks based on patient preferences. It delivers patient experiences via SMS, email, web, and a mobile application – and one day, through voice interfaces as well. To learn more, visit alexadiabeteschallenge.com.
With voice assistants rapidly becoming pervasive, many people are familiar with the devices and may soon expect the same convenience in health care. At first it was a novelty: Hospitals began using voice assistants to allow patients to order lunch, check medication regimens, and get on-demand medical advice at home. But these devices, manufactured by Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and others, are now making deeper inroads into patient care. Hospitals are exploring new uses in intensive care units and surgical recovery rooms, and contemplating a future in which Alexa, or another voice avatar, becomes a virtual member of the medical team — monitoring doctor-patient interactions, suggesting treatment approaches, or even alerting caregivers to voice changes that could be an early warning of a health emergency.
DeepMind's AlphaZero doesn’t play chess like a machine – it plays it like a human grandmaster, but better. Since 1997, when IBM’s Deep Blue beat world champion and chess legend Garry Kasparov in a six-game match, chess players have accepted that machines are stronger at chess. We have taken some comfort from the fact that we taught these machines how to play. But strangely enough, despite being programmed by humans, traditional chess engines don’t play quite like humans.
We present the Twitter Health Surveillance (THS) application framework. THS is designed as an integrated platform to help health officials collect tweets, determine if they are related with a medical condition, extract metadata out of them, and create a big data warehouse that can be used to further analyze the data. THS is built atop open source tools and provides the following value added services: Data Acquisition, Tweet Classification, and Big Data Warehousing. In order to validate THS, we have created a collection of roughly twelve thousands labelled tweets. These tweets contain one or more target medical terms, and the labels indicate if the tweet is related or not to a medical condition. We used this collection to test various models based on LSTM and GRU recurrent neural networks. Our experiments show that we can classify tweets with 96% precision, 92% recall, and 91% F1 score. These results compare favorably with recent research on this area, and show the promise of our THS system.
Physical activity may have less to do with weight loss than we think. "I'm going to make you work hard," a blonde and perfectly muscled fitness instructor screamed at me in a recent spinning class, "so you can have that second drink at happy hour!" At the end of the 45-minute workout, my body was dripping with sweat. I felt like I'd worked really, really hard. And according to my bike, I had burned more than 700 calories. Surely I had earned an extra margarita. The spinning instructor was echoing a message we've been getting for years: As long as you get on that bike or treadmill, you can keep indulging — and still lose weight. It's been reinforced by fitness gurus, celebrities, food and beverage companies like PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, and even public health officials, doctors, and the first lady of the United States. Countless gym memberships, fitness tracking devices, sports drinks, and workout videos have been sold on this promise. There's just one problem: This message is not only wrong, it's leading us astray in our fight against obesity. To find out why, I read through more than 60 studies on exercise and weight loss. I also spoke to nine leading exercise, nutrition, and obesity researchers. Here's what I learned.
The voice revolution has only just begun. Today, Alexa is a humble servant. Very soon, she could be much more—a teacher, a therapist, a confidant, an informant.
This Viewpoint discusses strategies for debunking health misinformation on social media and ideas for ways to spread accurate health information. The ubiquitous social media landscape has created an information ecosystem populated by a cacophony of opinion, true and false information, and an unprecedented quantity of data on many topics. Policy makers and the social media industry grapple with the challenge of curbing fake news, disinformation, and hate speech; and the field of medicine is similarly confronted with the spread of false, inaccurate, or incomplete health information
As Romania fights a measles epidemic, Dr Mihai Craiu is using Facebook to turn the tide. His work has earned him a huge following – and 1st place in the 2018 Vaccines Today Communication Challenge’ In January 2017, Dr Mihai Craiu, a paediatrician in Bucharest, received some basic training in social media. It gave him the skills and confidence to do something he felt was sorely needed: join the online vaccine conversation to help parents understand the need for immunisation. Romania has recorded thousands of measles cases this year and many blame the spread of misinformation online for declining vaccine uptake. ‘Parents are using virtual media a lot – current data reveal that 74% of Romanians with a smartphone or desktop computer are going online first if they experience a health issue,’ Dr Craiu said. ‘I was concerned by the extremely low number of pro-immunization voices online. If anybody was searching online for information [in Romania] about a vaccine-related topic in 2016 or 2017 the first page they would find was full of anti-vaccination opinion. I realised that a Facebook page can reach more people than I could see in our clinic.’
That was the inspiration for his Facebook page (Spitalul Virtual de Copii) – a hub of information and a forum for conversations about vaccines and other child health topics. More than 100,000 people now follow the page and some of Dr Craiu’s videos have been viewed half a million times. ‘I spent at least three to four hours per day, but it has been a huge real-life experience,’ he said. The main challenge is responding to questions from parents – many of whom Dr Craiu believes decide to vaccinate their children after having their concerns addressed. He said he has learned a great deal through using social media and has been sharing his experience with paediatricians, GPs and other health professionals – most recently at the 3rd Balkan Paediatric Meeting. Dr Craiu won first prize in this year’s Vaccines Today Communication Challenge. The contest set out to find Europe’s vaccine champions – those who actively advocate vaccination. He will present his work at the Excellent in Paediatrics conference in Prague at a roundtable event hosted by the Coalition for Life-Course Immunisation. Read a full transcript of the interview below What is the situation today in Romania regarding vaccine uptake? Unfortunately, it is slowly but constantly decreasing since 2010. According to the National Institute for Public Health (CNSCBT) we are now below the herd-immunity cut-off. The latest annual report shows a constant downward trend for measles-mumps-rubella vaccine uptake. Only 74.5% of children have had two doses of vaccine. So, the current epidemic could have been prevented because there have been serious warnings since May 2016.
Using three doses of DTP as a surrogate-marker for immunization, we also see a decrease, according to UNICEF data which puts the current level at 84% nationally. However, in some counties in Romania, it is as low as 50%. Is there widespread public concern about measles cases? Yes, there has been constant coverage by media and official weekly reports from the CNSCBT on total number of confirmed cases and number of deaths. But the loudest voices are those of the anti-vaccine movement claiming that these numbers are incorrect and over-report measles cases and deaths. Are you concerned by the level of anti-vaccine commentary in the media and online? Yes, I am concerned because these rumours have grown into a structured movement with political implications. Clergy members, religious groups, artists and lawyers are joining forces. There is a broad group of parliament members (more than 80 people) that have been able to block the Immunization Law. The Health Ministry appointed a group of experts two years ago when the first cases of measles were confirmed. I was appointed as a paediatrician, but there have been GPs, microbiologists, infectious diseases experts, epidemiologists, lawyers, and specialist representing the child-protection authorities among others. The Immunization Law was evaluated by Health Ministry experts and then presented for a public debate. I was terrified by the verbal violence of opponents. Finally, after six hours of parallel dialogues, no basic consensus could be reached. The Senate had a relative short debate on this project and generated a positive vote. But the lower chamber of Parliament has the deciding vote. For more than a year there has been no progress. Where does that leave the public debate? Today there are no consequences for providing any fake-news regarding immunisation in Romania. The anti-vaccine people went so far as to distribute flyers by mail with UNICEF,WHO and Health Ministry logos stating that vaccines are harming children and are producing the measles epidemic. Dr Pintea, our Health Minister, has said that legal prosecution will follow. Do you also hear these concerns from parents in your clinic? How do you respond? Parents are extremely vocal in social media, both pro and against vaccination. In the clinic most of the people that approach physicians are hesitant people. Some of them are not opponents of all vaccines. MMR uptake is still affected by the bad Wakefield story and we are still debating with many parents on autism causality issues. There are also a large group of parents who are hesitant because their GP is hesitant. With my colleagues from the National GP Society we produced short online cases or scenarios related to vaccine-preventable diseases. We also posted, on the Society portal, a structured catch-up schedule for those children whose parents can be convinced. This portal is open also for lay people. When did you begin using Facebook to communicate about paediatrics and vaccination? More than four years ago we started to provide online education for parents of children with asthma through our Institute’s online portal. The Virtual Asthma Hospital has proven that people are reading these posts. And children that were instructed to use this portal were less likely to have unscheduled medical visits to the Emergency Department. We were able to present a paper at an international conference on the Virtual Asthma Hospital impact on quality of life. Parents are using virtual media a lot. Current data reveal that 74% of Romanians with a smartphone or PC are going online first if they experience a health issue. Only 26% are asking their GP. So, I realised that a Facebook page can reach more people than I could see in our clinic. I attended a training session in Bruxelles in January 2017. I was concerned by the extremely low number of pro-immunization voices online. If anybody was searching online for information about a vaccine-related topic in 2016 or 2017 the first page they would find was full of anti-vaccination opinion. There are some isolated voices of physicians like Irina Costache, mother of two and paediatrician. Her blog, Mamica Pediatru, is a nice and positive voice. Prof Maria Livia Ognean, neonatologist and one of the most active physicians on-line, has a page called Baby Care Sibiu. And Dr Otilia Tiganas, a GP in a small rural area of western part of Romania writes a blog with a simple and sometimes humorous approach to medial issues – Blogul Otiliei. Has your social media work been a success? I think so – last year at the COPAC Gala my Facebook page (Spitalul Virtual de Copii) was awarded a special prize in a communication contest. It was the first time that a paediatric pro-immunization page was nominated for such a competition in Romania. More than 97,000 people are reading this page and a lot of children have been immunized after their parents had an online pro-con debate on this page. Positive open dialogues on vaccine related-issues are common on my page. It is not entirely dedicated to vaccines but covers a rather large area of childhood diseases or health-related issues like growth and development, emergencies, diet etc. Have you had any negative experiences? Yes, several. But during my 20 months experience I found the right approach – I hope! Some unexpected negative experiences were related to other physicians that were not very happy – unfortunately we have some doctors in Romania that are organizing, along with religious groups or notorious anti-vaccine champions, public events where fake science is promoted. How do you respond to anti-vaccine comments on Facebook? If they are aggressive or deliberating misleading I warn them in a polite manner. Some fake-news are useful because I can answer in a scientific way and I am able to provide data and documentation sources for hesitant parents. A lot of hesitant people sent me private messages seeking guidance or even asking me to immunize their child. Some vulgar or aberrant posts are deleted. But more than 90% of my Facebook followers are rather polite. Would you encourage other health professionals to use social media in this way? Yes, I have presented my work at several local or regional meetings. This month I was an invited speaker at the 3rd Balkan Paediatric Meeting where I presented my online activities. Next month I will attend a national joint meeting of paediatricians, GPs and media people and I will present also a SWOT analysis of my Facebook page. What skills or training do you need, if any? I need better skills for video editing – short videos are the most commented posts on my Facebook page. One of them had more than 500,000 views. A lot of trouble-shooting issues are also needed – how to respond to a special type of approach? Tailored "treatment" in a rising rather aggressive Romanian Social Media environment is needed. Does it take a lot of your time? Yes. At least 3-4 hours a day. But it has been a huge real-life experience. During a one-to-one dialogue in hospital I am rather protected. I am in a comfortable position of being a senior physician and patients are rather compliant. But online I have met the real patients. There are no limited on sincere and uncensored dialogue. One parent has said: "If I am not in the GP’s office I can ask about my fears or dilemmas. You are listening. Or at least you cannot interrupt my questions…". Do you believe your social media work is having an impact on public attitudes? Yes. Or I hope so! Many of my residents and students in medical school have changed. And our hospital is now the leading paediatric hospital in parental perspective. Because dialogue style changed. The future is now. Social media tools will impact more and more medical issues – not only vaccination.
Via Plus91, Lionel Reichardt / le Pharmageek
Medical school is a melting pot of passions and intellect. Therefore, I was surprised when it was here that I felt, for the first time, alone in my interests. I had fallen in love with the idea of using social media as a health care tool for both patients and providers. However, this concept is still in its infancy. With colleagues dedicated to so many different projects, it was difficult to convince them to join a movement that is still finding its place in medicine. Additionally, many of us are wary of putting our professional reputations at risk before they even have a chance to form. Statements made on social media in the heat of the moment can come back years later in haunting ways. A poorly thought out or timed tweet can become viral in minutes. While I found this discouraging, the very platform I was trying to promote provided me with relief. On Twitter, I could find the conversations I craved with a simple #hashtag filter. Even when I didn’t know what I was looking for, I asked questions, and a simple like reminded me that I was not alone in my questioning. I followed mentors I admired, shaping my newsfeed into a flow of articles I cared about. Through them I learned of other hashtags and “mentors” I could follow. The quotations only indicate that most of these mentors probably are unaware of how they are influencing my personal career decisions and growth. I happily grew into my lurker position and reached out of it occasionally. I learned about conference hashtags and was instantaneously given highlights from sessions occurring across the nation. It was easy asking clarification questions on Twitter knowing that people could respond in their own time. I enjoyed the false sense of security an online platform gives sometimes shy people like me. A few months ago, I participated in a tweetchat: #hcsm (healthcare social media). The interactions inspired me to break out of my comfort zone and directly message social media guru @DanamLewis, who founded the open source artificial pancreas system movement #OpenAPS. She agreed to speak for our Healthcare Innovations and Technology Student Interest Group, which is devoted to sharing news about improved patient care through the use of technology. It was the most attended event all year. I currently hover in my personal bubble as a medical student on Twitter. I turn to it for information from trusted sources and am often pleasantly surprised by the interactions I have. While I tend to overthink social interactions with those above me on the medical hierarchy, the constant flow of tweets coming in from around the world allows me to let go of the expectations that I should get a response. Additionally, there is no obligation to post. I can use Twitter for as much or as little as I want, and it has been this versatility in usage that has convinced me of its invaluableness as a tool for the modern medical student. I wrote this post with the guidance of both mentors and “mentors.” I look forward to the day when all medical students feel comfortable enough to add Twitter to their medical school toolkit. For all those who agree or disagree, I am putting out a call to action. A few peers and I who turn to social media for different reasons are coming together to formulate Twitter Guidelines, written by and for medical students. Guidelines for using Twitter as a medical educator, for example, already exist. If you have any experiences that would help us in our efforts, we would love to hear from you. You can email us at medstudsforsocialmedia@gmail.com or find me on Twitter @lamvivianw!
Via Plus91
Amazon’s decision to acquire pharmaceutical start-up PillPack came as no surprise to many, but dramatically led pharmaceutical companies to plunge in the stock market in **. Known to transform traditional industries, healthcare will be Amazon’s next big challenge, yet the company will face a multitude of complex hurdles.
Via Lionel Reichardt / le Pharmageek
- The world's largest technology companies have all hired well-known cardiologists.
- Heart disease and high blood pressure affect a large number of people, are well-understood, and there's evidence that consumer products can help.
Big Silicon Valley companies have often competed for talent with specialized skills, like expertise in artificial intelligence or trendy new programming languages. Now they're competing for heart doctors. Apple, Alphabet, and Amazon have all hired well-known cardiologists. This might just be a coincidence. Cardiologists tend to be well educated and hard working, and big tech companies have a track record of recruiting such people. In recent years, all of these companies have started to invest in products and devices that are targeted to millions of people who could benefit by tracking their heart health. Apple's smartwatch now includes an electrocardiogram, which can detect heart rhythm irregularities. Verily's study watch, which is designed for clinical trial research, also tracks heart rate and heart rhythm, and it's doing a lot of work in chronic disease management. So the more likely explanation is that tech companies are interested in health care, and they have all come to the conclusion that cardiology should be an early (if not initial) target. Here's why. It's a huge potential market Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the world, and strokes are among the leading causes of death. And that's not all that cardiologists treat. "Our scope covers other common disease such as high blood pressure, which impacts about a third of people in the U.S. — 75 million Americans — as well as lipid and cholesterol disorders," said Dr. Mo Elshazly, a cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. Many cardiologists are also experts in nutrition and exercise science, which impacts a huge number of people who are committed to staying healthy. That's useful for the teams within the largest tech companies that are more focused on wellness and fitness applications, rather than on health and medical. Alphabet has Google Fit. Apple has a fitness group for its Apple Watch. And Amazon is looking at health and wellness applications for its Alexa voice assistant. It's well-studied Cardiology is among the most-studied fields in medicine, meaning there's already a lot of evidence to understand the root causes of heart disease, as well as how to prevent it. That's attractive for tech companies, which tend to base their development decisions on data. Their consumer products are already making a difference Let's take Apple, as an example. The company launched its first Apple Watch model with a heart rate sensor, never expecting that people would use it to discover they were pregnant, at risk for a heart attack or experiencing a dangerous irregular heart rhythm. But as people began sharing examples of how the Apple Watch saved their life, the company started to invest heavily in the science and technology to drive more of these stories. A lot of that work culminated in the first-ever clearance for a heart rhythm sensor called an ECG for Apple Watch earlier in the summer. read more at https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/17/what-every-tech-company-needs-a-cardiologist.html
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Objective Voice signal analysis is an emerging noninvasive diagnostic tool. The current study tested the hypothesis that patient voice signal characteristics are associated with the presence of coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods The study population included 138 patients who were enrolled between January 1, 2015, and February 28, 2017: 37 control subjects and 101 subjects who underwent planned coronary angiogram. All subjects had their voice signal recorded to their smartphone 3 times: reading a text, describing a positive emotional experience, and describing a negative emotional experience. The Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients were used to extract prespecified voice features from all 3 recordings. Voice was recorded before the angiogram and analysis was blinded with respect to patient data. Results Final study cohort included 101 patients, of whom 71 (71%) had CAD. Compared with subjects without CAD, patients with CAD were older (median, 63 years; interquartile range [IQR], 55-68 years vs median, 53 years; IQR, 42-66 years; P=.003) and had a higher 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk score (9.4%; IQR, 5.0-18.7 vs 2.7%; IQR, 1.6-11.8; P=.005). Univariate binary logistic regression analysis identified 5 voice features that were associated with CAD (P<.05 for all). Multivariate binary logistic regression with adjustment for ASCVD risk score identified 2 voice features that were independently associated with CAD (odds ratio [OR], 0.37; 95% CI, 0.18-0.79; and 4.01; 95% CI, 1.25-12.84; P=.009 and P=.02, respectively). Both features were more strongly associated with CAD when patients were asked to describe an emotionally significant experience. Conclusion This study suggests a potential relationship between voice characteristics and CAD, with clinical implications for telemedicine—when clinical health care is provided at a distance.
Health has truly met wealth with the new strides of tech giants Google and Apple who are becoming increasingly confident in healthcare. While early advances, such as Google Glass in the OR, arguably left little impact on the healthcare sector, more recent efforts by both organisations have demanded more serious consideration by hospital systems, consumers, regulators and life sciences organisations. In this week's blog we take a look at some of the notable healthcare activities Google and Apple have engaged in so far in an effort to provide an insight into their healthcare strategies and where healthcare incumbents may be challenged or where healthcare organisations may stand to benefit from the precedent and structure they pave in the slowly shifting healthcare environment.
If Alexa can give information about the weather, the news, play music, tell jokes, etc, surely she can solve your health woes, right? Maybe not just yet. Alexa won’t change healthcare delivery until she is HIPAA compliant. Until then, she will probably enable easier patient and HCP education, medication adherence, medication ordering, appointment scheduling. You are more likely to speak faster than you type/ write, you probably prefer to have a conversation with a virtual assistant than just a blunt ending transactional text. If you didn’t have to, you’d rather not have to use your hands to type - voice is hands free, vision free (think older people, poorer vision, difficulty in using phone based apps). Alexa also has the benefit of extensibility - new tools can be built on top of existing voice platforms for specific use cases.
Physician directories are vitally important to every health care system. They are: - Among the highest viewed pages on any hospital website
- The first impression of your health system and physicians
- Patient conversion vehicles
There are eight common mistakes made in physician directories. Once you know the mistakes, you can revise your directory to drive new patient acquisition. 1. Naming the tool something other than “Find A Doctor.” 2. Requiring a search before showing any doctor results. 3. Not having individual bio pages for each doctor. 4. “About/Bio” content is missing from the bio page. 5. Search filters are too broad or too specific. 6. Profile images are poor quality or nonexistent. 7. Not offering a way to contact the doctor or hospital. 8. An “Advanced Search” feature is not available.
Via Plus91
What do 3D-printed prosthetics, personalized medicine, therapies that use virtual reality and smart watches that monitor vital signs all have in common? They rely on new digital technologies to deliver health services to people. Such innovative technologies can be incorporated into health systems to help them work more efficiently and effectively, and to provide greater access to health services for the people they serve. 1) Digital health goes beyond the use of mobile and internet technologies 2) Digitalization can help make health systems responsive and sustainable 3) Digital health enables the transition from treatment to prevention 4) Digital health systems call for modified roles of health-care professionals 5) Digitalization allows health-care professionals more time to practise medicine 6) Digital health systems can help reduce inequalities in health
A recent report from the UK's Academy of Medical Royal Colleges described ‘the miracle cure’ of performing 30 min of moderate exercise, five times a week, as more powerful than many drugs administered for chronic disease prevention and management.1Regular physical activity reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and some cancers by at least 30%. However, physical activity does not promote weight loss. In the past 30 years, as obesity has rocketed, there has been little change in physical activity levels in the Western population.2 This places the blame for our expanding waist lines directly on the type and amount of calories consumed. However, the obesity epidemic represents only the tip of a much larger iceberg of the adverse health consequences of poor diet. According to TheLancet global burden of disease reports, poor diet now generates more disease than physical inactivity, alcohol and smoking combined. Up to 40% of those with a normal body mass index will harbour metabolic abnormalities typically associated with obesity, which include hypertension, dyslipidaemia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease.3 However, this is little appreciated by scientists, doctors, media writers and policymakers, despite the extensive scientific literature on the vulnerability of all ages and all sizes to lifestyle-related diseases.
Google researchers have developed an AI system that can grade prostate cancer cells on the Gleason system with 70 percent accuray. The goal, according to technical lead Martin Stumpe and Google AI Healthcare product manager Craig Mermel, was to develop AI that could perform Gleason grading objectively — and precisely. Human pathologists disagree on grades by as much as 53 percent, studies show.
Health and fitness apps have become widely popular over the past few years, with usage growing by over 330% in the last three years, according to new research. The data, from Flurry Analytics, also shows that engagement is high, with three quarters of active users opening their health and fitness app at least two times ... [Read more...]
Via Lionel Reichardt / le Pharmageek
Twitter is a place where many cancer patients go to share and discuss their experiences of the disease. This is the main finding of a recent exploratory study, to be presented at the ESMO 2018 Congress in Munich, which analysed the contents of over 6,000 tweets and retweets about breast cancer. Social media today have become an echo chamber in which every societal issue is reverberated many times over - including cancer. Study author Dr. Rodrigo Sanchez-Bayona of Clinica Universidad de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, said: "Many of the patients we see in daily practice use social media to search for information about their disease, so, as care providers, we wanted to know what kind of content they find there. At the same time, the sheer volume of posts on Twitter represents a rich pool of data we can use to assess attitudes and discourses surrounding cancer." For this analysis, all tweets posted with the hashtag #BreastCancer over a seven-day period were collected and categorised according to their content, aim, user information and whether they displayed a stigmatising attitude towards breast cancer. The tweets were also grouped into four subthemes: diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and prevention. "This study was part of a larger, multidisciplinary project to observe the presence of different diseases on social media. In 2014, we found that cancer was the most mentioned pathology on Twitter globally. We decided to look more closely at breast cancer first, because it is one of the three most common tumours worldwide and the primary cause of cancer deaths in women." The data collected included 3,703 original tweets and 2,638 retweets. "When examining the original tweets, we found that only one in three had medical content," said Sanchez-Bayona. "However, 90% of this medical information was appropriate, which is likely owed to the fact that 40% of tweets came from institutions and public accounts." The categorisation of tweets by aim showed that the most frequent motive was patients sharing their experiences, followed closely by patient advocacy. The most common subtheme by far was prevention (44.5% of tweets). Out of the 2,559 non-medical tweets analysed, less than 15% contained stigmatising statements about the disease. "The numerous breast cancer awareness campaigns over the years have certainly contributed to reducing the stigma associated with this illness," said Sanchez-Bayona. "For many other tumours, there is still an unmet need. Going forward we would also like to explore and compare the social media presence of different tumours types." "Although it would be interesting to do further research into the profiles of social media users who are the most active in the discussion about cancer, these initial findings may prove useful in themselves," he continued. "In particular, advocacy organisations can draw on them to create relevant medical content and counselling about cancer that will be more accessible to users. Social media can be used as a new way of providing information on cancer prevention and health education - not just to patients, but to a much broader audience." Dr. Marina Garassino of Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan, Italy, commented for ESMO: "Twitter is a high-level platform that is much more credible than other social networks like Facebook, so I was not surprised to see that the majority of the news published there are accurate," she said. "This analysis also illustrates the presence of patients in large numbers on Twitter. We should take that as corroboration of a new reality: patients now use the web to find information, and social media must be an integral part of our communication with them. Academic institutions and key opinion leaders need to be even more active in spreading their findings through these channels to counteract the many 'fake news' circulating online." Dr. Evandro de Azambuja, ESMO Executive Board member, further commented: "I agree that the volume of reliable medical content published on Twitter should increase. Healthcare professionals and organisations really need to use appropriate social media as a way of sharing relevant information - both between them and with patients - because that is where it has the potential to be picked up fastest and most broadly." "Personally, I check Twitter daily for announcements of the latest publications of leading academic journals and fellow oncologists. I can then go and read the articles I'm interested in, knowing exactly where to find them. It's an efficient way of obtaining medical information as it is published," de Azambuja added. "When it comes to bringing the best evidence available in cancer research to the attention of as many people as possible, this platform is as powerful a tool as it gets." Abstract 360P_PR 'Breast cancer in Twitter: A real-world data exploratory study' will be presented by Rodrigo Sanchez-Bayona during Poster Display Session on Monday, 22 October 2018, 12:45-13:45 (CEST) in the Poster Area Networking Hub - Hall A3. Annals of Oncology, Volume 29 Supplement 8 October 2018
Via Plus91, Lionel Reichardt / le Pharmageek
Back in August, Stanford and Apple announced they were closing their joint Heart Study program to new participants. Now, Stanford Medicine has outlined additional details about the future of the program in a blog post. According to Stanford Medicine, the Apple Watch Heart Study attracted over 400,000 participants. Currently, Stanford says the study has entered the “final phase of data collection” with full completion expected in early 2019. Lloyd Minor, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, said that he hopes the study results in better detail on how wearables like Apple Watch can be used for informing precision health: “We hope this study will help us better understand how wearable technologies can inform precision health,” said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine. “These new tools, which have the potential to predict, prevent, and mange disease, are finally within our reach.”
Accenture and Merck have sought to collaborate with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the development of a cloud-based informatics research platform designed to help organisations in the life sciences industry improve productivity, efficiency and innovation in the early stages of drug development. The platform will enable an ecosystem that accelerates innovation by creating open, industry-standard application programming interfaces for core research functions, allowing researchers to rapidly adopt new capabilities. Scientific application providers, content providers and technology innovators will benefit from lower barriers to entry as they bring new capabilities to market, helping life sciences companies re-imagine processes, user experiences, and approaches to data-intensive research.
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