Public health in a 140-character world

Effective communication of public health activities is an essential component of public health practice and administration. Nowadays, Web 2.0 technologies such as Twitter are important communication and information dissemination tools, in many industries including health. However, given the novelty of social media in public health, there are limited evidences on their impact and effectiveness. The purpose of this study is to describe current use of Twitter in local health departments and the strengths of networks created based on followership. This study uses data from a list of public health agencies using Twitter compiled the National Coordinating Center for Public Health Services and Systems Research. Publicly available transcripts from #CDCChat, a monthly Twitter chat for public health professionals with Dr. Thomas Frieden of CDC, from Spring 2012 are used to analyze networks formed by public health professionals and agencies on Twitter, using social network analysis measures such as degree of centrality, closeness, and betweenness. This research is currently underway, thus we do not have any results yet. However, it will be completed by the 2013 APHA Annual Meeting. Findings from this study will provide insights on how public health agencies can best use their online presence to not only disseminate important public health information to their constituents, but also to form networks with peers. Such networks might be valuable sources of knowledge sharing or spring board for collaborations, which are important for public health practice during these times of resource scarcity. In addition, findings will provide insights on how to improve current Twitter usage practice in public health agencies or on how to institute such practice.