By Mark Sullivan 
Each month, CREATION.co’s respiratory tracking update brings you the latest insights into the online UK healthcare professional (HCP) conversation regarding respiratory disease.
The conversation level of UK HCPs discussing respiratory disease on Twitter
This month, between 21 April and 20 May, the UK HCP respiratory disease online conversation increased by more than 15% to 3,030 posts from April to May, albeit from less HCPs, largely due to #WorldHealthDay.However, following last month’s surge in COVID-19 mentions, the conversation relating to the virus returned to its previous level, down to 461 mentions. The most active UK HCP discussing respiratory diseases in the UK this month was once again Sara Nelson, who was also the most active online UK HCP in this therapy area last month.
This month, UK HCPs were most active on 03 May and posted 392 times about respiratory diseases on this day. As mentioned, this was largely attributed to WorldAsthmaDay, organised by the Global Initiative for Asthma. This year the focus of the event was “Closing Gaps in Asthma Care’, where HCPs were encouraged to discuss and ideate strategies to promote equal access to diagnosis and treatment, help facilitate care for different socioeconomic, ethnic and age groups and close the gap between wealthy and poorer communities and countries. Some of these solutions promoted by HCPs included new initiatives such as a toolkit designed to help UK general practices improve asthma outcomes whilst also reducing carbon emissions.
On #WorldAsthmaDay proud to have developed this quality improvement toolkit. GP practices you can improve patient asthma outcomes and achieve the IIF indicators. Check it out! @GreenerPractice @DrUrsulaM @NikkiKF @MenziesGow @stonny999 https://t.co/wysv22qTdY
— Aarti Bansal (@draartibansal) May 3, 2022
As well as a focus on patient outcomes and reducing the environmental impact of respiratory care on World Asthma Day HCPs also referenced the wider world news of increasing living costs and the impact this has on asthma patients. Some HCPs cited cases where asthma patients were forced to choose between inhalers and heating as a result of the cost of living increasing, whilst others saw preventable cases of asthma exacerbated because of the financial implications of the cost of living increases. Michael Mcnamee, a CYP nurse from the North West suggests future developments into asthma such as artificial intelligence have ‘huge potential’ and could be able to help reduce costs for patients and make life saving treatment more accessible.
Admitted a patient this week with an entirely preventable asthma exacerbation because she couldn’t afford the prescription charge for her preventative inhaler.
Bad for her health, misses work meaning she has even less money and given cost and bed pressures economically bonkers. https://t.co/vDdOk3Ortq— Will Ricketts 💙 🕊️ (@tb_doc) May 14, 2022
The most shared post by UK HCPs in the context of respiratory disease this month was from Paediatric Respiratory Consultant Prasad Nagakumar. His post asking his fellow HCPs if they inform patients on identifying when metered dose inhalers are empty, received 17 shares and HCPs across the country highlighted the importance of patient support and education within asthma care.
Do you know when your MDI inhaler is empty? HCPs – do we inform children/adults how to identify when the MDI inhaler is empty?.On #WorldAsthmaDay here is a🧵@asthmalunguk @BTSrespiratory @RespNprang @ginasthma @NACAPaudit @RCPhysicians (1/11) pic.twitter.com/qpmgL6X61B
— Prasad Nagakumar (@PrasadNagakumar) May 3, 2022
Within the COVID-19 space the focus was on long COVID with HCPs sharing news from Asthma and Lung UK that the number of people seeking help for long Covid has doubled and the NHS is struggling to keep up.
The number of people seeking help for #LongCovid has doubled and the NHS is struggling to keep up, a charity has warned.
According to @asthmalunguk some are at "crisis point"https://t.co/JZTGtmtrYH
— Long Covid SOS (@LongCovidSOS) May 15, 2022
Each month, we track the HCP conversation relating to respiratory disease.
You can keep up to date with this and other pharmaceutical tracking updates, including COVID-19 developments, within the Tracking section of CREATION Knowledge, or sign up to receive our monthly eJournal with all of our latest HCP insights.
If you would like to dig deeper into what we have seen this month then please do get in touch.
Methodology
- This article analysed the Twitter conversations of HCPs in the UK discussing respiratory disease and related terms between 21 April and 20 May 2022 using CREATION Pinpoint®.
- Between 21 April and 20 May 2022, there were 3,030 UK HCP mentions of respiratory disease and related terms, from 1,256 unique UK HCP authors.
