Software Advice blogger Chris Thorman presented an interesting argument last week by hypothesizing that Twitter—the hero of Iran’s grassroots political organizing campaign—could be an important tool in battling the spread of disease. As fears surrounding the H1N1 pandemic are sure to return when flu season hits the northern hemisphere, Thorman’s argument is timely. The blog offers an interesting view of how social networking technology--such as Twitter--may be used in our health system as a real-time health surveillance tool in combination with electronic health records (EHRs).

The argument is that Twitter can be an important tool for physicians in relaying information to their colleagues and the greater health care community about the surveillance of disease. In sum, Twitter could be an epidemiological real-time tool that tracks disease, shares information and transmits progress and events live.  Thorman presents a scenario for his readers that goes as follows:

1. Doctors universally utilize electronic health records (EHR)
2. As they observe patients, they are able to "tweet" patient observations, enabling them to follow similar trends of symptoms or diagnosis.
3. Attached to the ‘tweets' are epidemiological analytic tools that are programmed to spotlight disease irregularity or risk

What is needed? Thorman covers that too:

1. A physician verification system that allows docs to securely transmit authentic ‘tweets'
2. Uniform set of diagnosis codes worldwide
3. Use of "hash tags"-which means placing a # in front of key words so that they can be linked/grouped to other user's content

The idea offers an interesting view for the use for ‘social networking' technology that is shaking off its reputation as solely a lunch break activity. There are drawbacks, noted by Thorman, such as, privacy concerns and an over abundance of information. Not to mention reliability, verification, and a plethora of clinical, legal, information technology, and public policy issues.

The devil is always in the details, but would the marriage of twitter and EHR's be viable, would it create shock waves of panic or lead to faster identification and resolution/treatment? That, of course, would depend on who aggregates information and draws conclusions. Too many tweets in the health surveillance nest? Worth some thought...

Also Interesting:

[+] HIT Stakeholders Argue ‘Meaningful Use' Requirement too Aggressive

[+] GE offers no-interest loans to promote EHR software

[+] Community Health Centers: An EHR helping hand, please?

[+] States take bigger role in promoting EHR adoption

[+] Doctors aided by emerging offshoot of EHR software

[+] EHRs with the ease of an iPhone? Not so fast