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
In the final respiratory tracker of the year, the activity of UK HCPs discussing respiratory disease online, between November and December, once again decreased in volume to 3,341 mentions. With the highest volume of posts in one day being 207, this was the first respiratory tracker since September 2021 to have not had a day with over 300 posts. As has been the common theme of 2021, the volume of COVID-19 related posts was less than the volume of non COVID-19 respiratory disease mentions.
25 November saw the most respiratory disease online posts from UK HCPs this month, similarly to this time in 2020 , was largely driven by the British Thoracic Society hosting their 2021 winter meeting, which took place on Wednesday 24 – Friday 26 November as an online-only event. UK HCPs used the hashtag #BTSWinter2021 to discuss the online meeting with one another, the most engaged with post during the meeting was from a Consultant Respiratory & General Medicine Physician using the Twitter handle @BTSchair. Their tweet explaining the Cochrane review presentation received over 20 retweets from fellow UK HCPs and over 170 likes from HCPs and non-HCPs alike.
Use combination inhaled ICS/LABA PRN for mild #asthma @asthmauk SMART
Bin PRN inhaled salbutamol?
NO stand alone inhaled salbutamol prescriptions please 🙏
is the message from the Cochrane review presentation #BTSWinter2021— BTS 💙 (@BTSchair) November 25, 2021
Interestingly, there was nothing to separate the top two hashtags claiming the coveted top spot for most used hashtag this month, and were actually used together 25 times over the course of the month. The aforementioned #BTSWinter2021 was used 157 times by UK HCPs discussing respiratory diseases, as was #COPD. We reported last month on how HCPs used World COPD Day 2021 to raise awareness of the condition and this month UK HCPs, such as Rebecca D’Cruz, were able to discuss the prevention, treatment and recovery for COPD patients.
Tune in to today’s 10:45 #BTSWinter2021 #COPD exacerbation session chaired by @MonaBafadhel & @Greening_COPD
I’ll be presenting our @NIHRresearch @LaneFoxResearch data on recovery of physical activity & sleep following severe #AECOPD & using #HFT
See you there! #RespIsBest 🫁 pic.twitter.com/AzOotQ18vO
— Becky D'Cruz (@RebDCruz) November 24, 2021
In the COVID-19 online conversation space, an article from ‘The Secret Consultant’ (an anonymous respiratory doctor) titled ‘ICU is full of the unvaccinated – my patience with them is wearing thin’ was the most shared story by UK HCPs this month with 39 posts of the article. HCPs such as Tom Lawton shared the sentiment of the article and urged people to be vaccinated against COVID-19, before it’s too late. Interestingly, it was a non-HCP who received the most engagement from UK HCPs this month, with over 30 HCPs sharing the post, proposing Christmas be moved to a less dangerous time of year for respiratory diseases.
Proposal to move Christmas to a season less likely to be the peak of a respiratory disease pandemic
— Claire (@clairestrickett) December 14, 2021
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 November and 20 December 2021 using CREATION Pinpoint®.
- Between 21 November and 20 December 2021, there were 3,341 UK HCP mentions of respiratory disease and related terms, from 1,565 unique UK HCP authors.
