Blog Archives

Periscope – the latest #SoMe for spreading the Palliative Care message?

Posted on by
4

Has anyone tried Periscope, the new live-streaming video app from Twitter? I used it earlier this week to watch an interview via health journalist (and all round social media star @croakeyblog) Melissa Sweet’s Periscope account. I’m unsure of the potential of this new app at the moment (it could be a great medium for the #thickenedliquidchallenge) but will try it out this weekend when I’m in Melbourne for the Medicine Social health and social media event. (Palliverse’s own Sonia Fullerton is one of the speakers.) You can watch live or on replay for 24 hours after the event.

If you’d like to play along, you can download the app here and follow @palliverse (and @Elissa_Campbell while you’re at it). I think it’s only for iOS at this stage – sorry Android users.

Palace of Care/I think therefore I am? – Special Edition: Palliative Care Mission of Mercy – #getjakbak

Posted on by
2

Hi everyone this is a last minute fundraising plea to everyone as private citizens.

I am organising for our non-resident patient “Jak” to return back to the Islands. (Real name changed.)

Jak is a 44 year old man with a large abdominal mass found to be cancer with spinal cord compression + lung mets, intra-abdominal abscess resistant to IV Ertapenem – causing fluctuating levels of sepsis.

Has been trying to get back to the Islands for the past month, but hampered by critical illness.

He has stabilized at present and we have one shot at getting him back tomorrow morning at 0915. He can travel if escorted by a doctor. The most discounted fee for a doctor I could negotiate was $3800, which the family could not afford.

I have volunteered my services to look after him on the flight to help Jak get back.

The family with the help of the local Pasifika Community, have fundraised $7400 of the required $10720. They need $NZ3320 by 5pm today in order for Jak to get back home. i.e. in 1.5 hours have received pledges of $720 so far. 1536hrs

So close but yet so far…

Please forward this email on to your own teams and networks.

Every bit pledged will count. I will consider all pledges of assistance.

For those interested in following the journey I will attempt to live tweet/blog it through Twitter:  @palliverse #getjakbak and www.palliverse.com

Thank you for your consideration,

James

1550hrs – $1320
1557hrs – $1520
1611hrs – $1790
1613hrs – $1990

Just need $1330 to grant this young man his dying wish of going home to his family. We can do this team!

1617hrs – $2190
1620hrs – $2210

Only $1110 to go to #getjakbak

1629hrs – $2260
1630hrs – $2425
1631hrs – $2475
1630hrs – $2775
1634hrs – $2925

Only need another $395. Well done team!

1640hrs – $3005
1642hrs – $3085
1642hrs – $3150
1655hrs – $3350
1700hrs – $3400

Thank you everyone we have done it! Any extra funds raised will go towards payment of hospital fees.

Thank you for helping your fellow man. I am proud of you all!

James

twitter 102 – I know what a hashtag is, what’s next?

Posted on by
6

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

Idiot’s guide to twitter for health professionals – Twitter 101

Posted on by
18

“I don’t get Twitter.”

“I don’t have time to … um, tweet!”

“Nobody cares what I had for lunch.”

 

As an (ahem) senior medical staff member I get a lot of raised eyebrows when I talk about Twitter. Some people (most people?) haven’t actually had a look themselves but have views about it being lightweight, superficial and a time waster.

 

Twitter is part of a revolution in health care; we are moving from the one-way “doctor knows best” model to a two-way dialogue in which patients and carers are actively engaged with health professionals and participate in their own health care.

 

I use Twitter mostly professionally. Surprised? Since I joined, the answer to the question, “Did you see the xyz paper?” has turned from a probably ‘No’ to a certain ‘Yes’. I have seen everything! I have “met” amazing people all around the world; patients, carers, other health professionals, health care leaders.

 

There are heaps of articles about why health care professionals should use Twitter online. 

For me, the benefits in Twitter are in

  • seeing important palliative papers as soon as they are out,
  • learning about current and future research projects
  • gaining a better patient/carer perspective
  • meeting people I would not otherwise
  • hearing about interesting stuff from other fields, and
  • powerfully enhancing the conference experience. I can even ‘be’ at conferences without being there!

For research, it’s an amazing tool to bring together ideas and people and talk about their work. When I was looking at setting up a project to improve breathlessness in palliative patients, I asked my Twitter mates as well as doing a formal lit search. They kindly send me a stack of stuff including some unpublished data by leaders in the field which I had no way of knowing about otherwise. I was able to connect with people doing similar work in the UK.

 

Here’s a proper talk about how to get on to Twitter

 

My quick summary would be

 

  1. What is everyone talking about? Just jump on at twitter.com and have a look. Search for a couple of hastags that are interesting to you. You could try #palliative or #hpmglobal (hospice and palliative medicine global).

 

  1. What is this # thing? A hashtag is a way that people mark the topic of their tweet. So for example, if I wanted to ask a question about opioid use in Africa and want to ask the global palliative community, I might tweet

“interested in learning about #palliative opioid use in africa #hpmglobal”

 

  1. Join up. Choose a user name or “handle”. Mine is @sonialf. You can tell it’s my username as it starts with “@”. If I had my time again I would separate my personal identity from my professional identity.

 

  1. Follow some people. To follow someone, click on their handle then press “follow”. You will then see all the tweets they make. Follow @palliverse, of course!

 

  1. Check out some chats. Try  #hpmglobal at 22:00 AEST on Monday nights and #hpm on Thursdays. Or #hcsmanz (health care social media Australia/New Zealand) at 20:00 AEST Sunday nights. Just type the hashtag into the search bar at the appropriate time, and viola! A group of people around the world come together at this prearranged time to discuss a predetermined topic. All their tweets will be marked with the relevant hashtag.

 

Next time… twitter 102 – I know what a hashtag is – what’s next?

Cheers, Sonia

Some references:

http://futuredocsblog.com/top-twitter-myths-tips/

Should doctors use Twitter? http://www.amednews.com/article/20090629/business/306299993/4/

 

Palliative Care Victoria Conference 2014

Posted on by
1

Are you heading to the palliative care victoria conference in Melbourne in July 2014?

Fear not, your trusty @palliverse correspondent @sonialf will be heading there to keep you up to date with the exciting developments. Continue reading →