FluTweet and Twitter Tips for Clinical Trial Recruiters

First, here is a slideshow about 140 Healthcare uses for Twitter:

Second, TwiTip came up with a nice list of suggestions for clinical trial recruiters about how they should use Twitter. One of the suggestions:

Create a resource list of your new Twitter friends who’ve successfully re-tweeted and help spread the word on your study. Use Tweetdeck or Twhirl to follow all Twitter feeds in one place. Thank your followers and invite them to help out on the next study. More than likely, these Twitter users know someone or are affected by the very disease you are studying and have very personal and heartfelt reasons to get involved.

Third, FluTweet is an interesting application for tracking flu epidemics with Twitter.

FluTweet uses fresh Twitter data to track global flu epidemics. Tracking is based on counting tweets that contain flu-related keywords, such as flu, influenza or sore throat. Prevalence of those keywords should correlate with flu activity, since people often tweet about their flu or flu-like symptoms.

Further reading:

• If you’re new to Twitter
• Twitter And Health 2.0: A Visual Story
• 10 Tips: How to filter discussions on Twitter?
• Twitterview: The Future of Medicine in 140 Characters
• The Youngest Twitterer and the Future of Health Management
• What you have to know about Twitter
• Quality of Medical Information Online: A Twitter Discussion
• Twitter for Health and Medicine
• 10 Reasons Why I Use Twitter
• Tips and Tricks: Is Twitter reliable?
• Health Tweeple to Follow
• Twitter for Health and Medicine
• Omnee: An organic directory of Twitter users