Will Twitter Change Healthcare? Ask it!
Obviously not, but it can provide us with some new solutions. That’s why I wanted to share askCH, an interesting project.
AskCH is a one-of-a-kind healthcare tool. Send a healthcare cost or definition question in the proper format, and receive the answer with a link to find detailed information!
So you can send messages via Twitter such as:
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Cost of [drug name] near [zipcode]
example tweet: “d askch cost of lexapro near 37211“
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Generic for [drug name]
example tweet: “d askch generic for plavix“
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What is [drug name]
example tweet: “d askch what is lipitor“
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What is [health issue]
example tweet: “d askch what is diabetes“
Actually, I gave it a try and asked them “what is COPD”. The reply was “Sorry, we don’t have a description for copd.”
We will see whether people start using it as its success depends on that.
@Berci – I checked into your test for ‘what is COPD’ and you have uncovered a bug we are working now. When AskCH looks up your health issue definition, it looks up the whole name of the health issue, and does not currently look at aliases. Unfortunately, COPD confused it.
Thanks for the review, and for the tweet! What other uses could you see Twitter apps/services providing to benefit people looking to save money on healthcare?
Thank you, Chris, for the comment. Actually, I could have thought of it.
Good luck with your initiative!
Berci
PS: I hope once we will be able to connect all the people interested in healthcare from patients to professionals and provide them with a tool/app/service that can find the most relevant connections between them.
Hey sir,
As usual, your right on top of things! Thanks so much for highlighting askch and it’s beta release. Your question re: COPD as well as ALS, MS and other disease-based acronym/aliases (as Chris mentioned) is getting addressed by the the team soon.
Yes, this is certainly beta and there are other things to enhance and I’d really appreciate further suggested tweaks, etc as they come to mind from readers. This twitter app is really intended to be a proof-of-concept for our evolving API development so it was/is not intended to be a final product but rather a demonstration that cost data is readily available and accessible to people in creative ways besides/beyond forcing people to have to go to a “website” to get info.
We have much more work to do on this and really appreciate any suggestions as we enhance it (i’ll think some more about your notion of “relevant connections” between people)
Thanks again,
christopher parks
Thank you, Christopher, for the comment.
I’m looking forward to seeing the developments. I would love to write about them here on Scienceroll.
Berci Mesko, MD
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