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. You can find the most up to date insights, and the archive, on our Respiratory Tracker landing page.
This month between February and March, the activity of UK HCPs discussing respiratory disease online was the lowest it has been so far this year, only matching the previous average daily level of conversation a handful of times. We see the proportion of non COVID-19 related conversation increasing month on month, making up the majority of the conversation each day.
In the context of our ongoing UK HCP tracking, the respiratory disease landscape is primarily focused on obstructive lung diseases, with discussions about asthma heavily dominating the space. COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), although comprising only 17% of the total conversation, contributed some of the most frequently talked about stories within the month.
Fascinating paper in @EmergencyMedBMJ: in exacerbation COPD requiring oxygen, even those with normal CO2 have a worse prognosis if their saturations are higher! Controlled trial now really needed. https://t.co/SRuJXvOVXe @acutemedicine @DanLasserson
— Jacob de Wolff 🇳🇱🚲☕️ (@jfdwolff) February 23, 2021
The content of these COPD discussions was very scientific, with HCPs preferring to share new research and data than public-facing awareness posts. For example, the post above originally from UK acute physician Jacob de Wolff which was shared by 17 UK HCPs, links to a BMJ publication studying the link between oxygen therapy and mortality in COPD exacerbations.
District Nursing Team Leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland @TheQNI needs your help to assess the workforce readiness to care for patients experiencing an exacerbation of COPD and Cellulitis @ home – 10 min survey https://t.co/UsCD40hMZH
Please share with colleagues pic.twitter.com/vv0iIWvDQE— Professor John Unsworth (@johnunsworth10) March 15, 2021
We also see HCPs discussing COPD using social media to disseminate research resources to a wider audience, including trial enrollments and surveys. The post above is an example of this, with 30 UK HCPs sharing a survey originally posted by Queen’s Nursing Institute Chair John Unswurth, asking district nursing team leaders across the country to provide information in order to help inform an understanding of workforce readiness to care for patients suffering COPD exacerbations.
Each month, we track the HCP conversation relating to respiratory disease and this month we have seen UK HCPs using Twitter to engage with virtual congresses like BTS Winter.
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 February and 20 March 2021 using CREATION Pinpoint®.
- Between 21 February and 20 March 2021, there were 3,174 UK HCP mentions of respiratory disease and related terms, from 1,553 unique UK HCP authors.
