Greetings tweeps.
That’s not an insult by the way, a tweep is a person who uses twitter, think twitter/people.

So maybe by now you have had a look at twitter and know what a handle is, i.e. a person’s user name that starts with an @ symbol.
And you know we use hashtags like #palliative to “tag” topics of interest so other people can find them.
Hopefully you have registered and have a handle of your own.

What’s next? Time to dive into the fabulous world of tweetchats. A tweetchat is an event on twitter that can happen as a regular event, or as a one off or occasional event.

One of my favourties is #hpmglobal which is hospice and palliative medicine global. It’s hosted by Prof Jim Cleary (@jfclearywisc) who works at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center as an oncologist and palliative medicine physician. He passionately promotes global access to opioids. https://twitter.com/jfclearywisc
Each week at a particular time, which at the moment is Monday 22:00 AEST, he hosts a multidisciplinary discussion which is attended by people interested in palliative care from all over the world, including clinicians in Africa, the Americas, Europe, and of course a strong showing from Australasia.

Your well-run tweetchat has a theme that is decided and promoted on Twitter ahead of time. Examples from the past have included discussions of opioid availability in developing countries, and end of life care policies in your country. It has an international emphasis. Another great chat, #hpm, is terrific but sadly at a bad time for ANZ tweeps, in work hours on a Thursday. See the link below.

The tweetchat hour may be structured like this:
The topic has been announced, often with a link to a blog written by the host of the tweetchat or by the co-host of that week’s chat.
1. restatement of the topic and relevant link
2. introductions
3. topics one, two and three (marked as T1 etc)
4. CT (closing thoughts)
5. Announcement of next week’s topic
6. Sometimes the data analysis of the tweetchat is tweeted

It’s really fun and you meet great people. You are welcome to just listen in and not say too much (“lurk”).

Once you have the hang of this, it’s time to start trying out other twitter related platforms like tweetchat, tweetdeck and hootsuite. These make it easier to follow several conversations at once, and tweet as different identities. So for example, sometimes I tweet as @sonialf and sometimes as @palliverse.

Other tweetchats I enjoy are #hcldr (health care leaders), #hcsmanz (health care social media Australia/New Zealand) and #hpmjc (hospice and palliative medicine journal club).

I hope to see you at 22:00 Monday night, i.e. tomorrow (Melb/Sydney time) for a combined #hpmjc and #hpmglobal. Let us know if you are there as a result of @palliverse!
Here is the tweet about it including the link…
#hpmglobal meets #hpmjc “How good r we at diagnosing dying?” Join @drol007 Mon Sept 29 12n GMT (10pSYD; 1pLON; 8aNYC) http://spcare.bmj.com/content/4/3/263.full.pdf …

What is your favourite tweetchat? Let us know in the comments.

Cheers, sonia

Article by Christian Sinclair @ctsinclair about #hpm
http://www.pallimed.org/2014/07/hospice-and-palliative-medicine.html