Soapbox 2.
0: Blog and microblog use by pharmacists for ranting and discourse
Justin Elkins, PharmDCand, Chilla E. Goncz, PharmDCand, Ramona Somnarain, PharmDCand, Kevin A. Clauson, PharmD
Background
The social media (i.e., Web 2.0) version of the
soapbox includes blogs and microblogs
A blog is a website that functions as a diary
where readers can engage in knowledge
sharing and leave feedback [BMC Med Educ
2006;6(41):2]; microblogs are a shorter version
Objective
The objective of this study was to examine both
the positive and negative aspects of pharmacist
blogs and microblogs (i.e., Twitter) by assessing
their common characteristics and exploring their
potential impact on the profession
Methods
Internet search engines, blog aggregators,
Technorati & blog rolls were used to identify
pharmacist blogs; Twitter Search was used to
locate bloggers who also had microblogs
Categories were developed to evaluate blogs
and comprised of a total of 32 criteria:
1. practice based topics (PBT)
2. identifying information (IDI)
3. positive language (PL)
4. critical language (CL)
5. professionalism (PRO)
6. miscellaneous (MISC)
Five most recent blog entries were assessed
Results Results – Language & Twitter
42 of the 101 initially identified blogs satisfied criteria of being pharmacist-authored, Most commonly used PL was written about
in English, and displaying a recent (i.e., posts in last 3 months) history of activity the pharmacy profession (23.8%), other
healthcare professionals (21.4%), and
Figure 1. Image of the most frequently read pharmacist blog patients (19.0%); 4.8% had PL on PhRMA
Highest rates of CL included posts written
about patients (54.8%), other healthcare
professionals (42.9%), and pharmacies
(19.0%); 16.% had CL about PhRMA
Pharmacist bloggers were more likely to use
Twitter (26.1%) than general public (11%)
www.theangrypharmacist.com during timeframe [Pew Research April 2009]
No patient identifying information was found on any blog Conclusions
The vast majority (71.4%) of pharmacists maintained their individual anonymity Blogs and microblogs provide an outlet for
Bloggers were closely divided by practice settings of community (42.9%) and writing, represent a new medium to interact
non-community (45.2%); 11.9% were indeterminable with patients and healthcare professionals,
and serve as an early warning system for
Figure 2. Common characteristics in pharmacist blogs (%)
issues within the profession
Discussion of therapies 69.0 Unprofessional blog contents portray
pharmacists negatively and could produce
Current events in healthcare 64.3 long-term damage to the profession
Use of profane language 50.0 Used in a rational and positive manner, Web
2.0 tools could be used to advance the
Concurrent use of Twitter 26.1
interests of practitioners and the profession
Forecasting future of profession 21.4
Disclosure
Authors of this presentation have the following to disclose concerning
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 possible financial or personal relationships with commercial entities:
None of the authors have anything to disclose in relation to this project.
ADDRESS QUESTIONS TO:
clauson@nova.edu