I recently fell into a twitter conversation that started with an innocent tweet by Dr Ros Taylor (@hospicedoctor):
I was surprised to learn that toast, a humble source of warmth of comfort, is banned in some hospitals. Continue reading
Here’s some palliative care and research related links to peruse in the week ahead (most found via Twitter):
ABC News interviews Atul Gawande about “modern medicine’s treatment of dying patients.” Dr Gawande is all over social media and the news, even in Australia (and in Legoland)!
Current and former Chairs of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists Mortality Sub-Committee write in The Age about the challenges that not for resuscitation orders can pose for anaesthetists.
The ASCO Post reviews a review article from JAMA Internal Medicine, about end-of-life discussions and advanced care planning. In summary, it’s all good.
In Canada’s Globe & Mail, “End-of-life patients aren’t being heard“.
Geriatrician Louise Aronson writes in The Lancet about ageism in medicine, and ageing as “the human life-cycle’s neglected step-child.”
Presenting at a conference? Improve your presentation with zombie apocalypse principles.
Meanwhile, on October 31st, GeriPal explored the unmet palliative care needs of zombies. And check out the zombie pain scale!
Finally, join the weekly (zombie-free) #hpmglobal tweetchat on Monday (17/11/14 at 11pm AEDT) to discuss an article from BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care about support networks of end-of-life carers. #hpmglobal chat is hosted by Aussie ex-pat Dr Jim Cleary (@jfclearywisc), with participants from several continents. For instruction in how to participate in a tweetchat, see Sonia’s post Twitter 102.
I hope you enjoy these and stay safe from zombies!
Elissa
Too easy.
Symplur has come up with this fantastic list of healthcare hashtags.
You can search for areas of interest, eg. “palliative”
http://www.symplur.com/search/%23palliative
(Hey! I am 6th in worldwide palliative influencers!!)
I am off to check some of them out!
Sonia
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
Interested in Twitter journal club but not sure what it’s all about? Keep reading.
The next #hpmJC will be held on 29th September 2014, 10pm AEST (noon GMT). It will be hosted from the UK by Dr Ollie Minton (@drol007). The article to be discussed is Diagnosing dying: an integrative literature review, by Kennedy et al. It’s available via open access from BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care.
Twitter journal club is a regular (approximately monthly) “tweet chat”. Unlike a traditional journal club, participants are located all over the world, giving a global perspective to the discussion and sharing their local practices. Sometimes the study authors participate!You don’t need a Twitter account to watch the discussion – simply go to twitter.com and type #hpmJC into the search bar in the top right-hand corner of the page. An even easier option is to visit a website like tweetchat.com or tchat.io – these websites automatically update when anyone tweets with the #hpmJC hashtag. Again, you don’t need to sign in to use these websites.
Hot on the heels of the @LegoAcademics come the @LegoPalliateurs. I think these Lego accounts are all the reason you need to try out Twitter!
A round-up from elsewhere on the web, which may appeal to the Palliverse community. Topics will include palliative care, healthcare and social media and academic research. (Is this something you’d like to see regularly? If so, please comment or do our quick survey.)
Those with an interest in research will enjoy the new @Lego_Academics twitter account. (Hint: you don’t need your own twitter account to view it.) It features the first Lego female scientists. The account has >2500 followers and has only been tweeting for 12 hours!
The Guardian reports that a French hospital is opening a wine bar in its palliative care centre, with the aim of “re-humanising” patients. I’ve heard of a palliative care unit with a drinks trolley – does your service have one? Continue reading
palliverse.com 