scholarly journals Does the organizational structure of health care systems influence care-seeking decisions? A qualitative analysis of Danish cancer patients' reflections on care-seeking

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 144-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rikke Sand Andersen ◽  
Peter Vedsted ◽  
Frede Olesen ◽  
Flemming Bro ◽  
Jens Søndergaard
10.2196/19276 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. e19276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Wahbeh ◽  
Tareq Nasralah ◽  
Mohammad Al-Ramahi ◽  
Omar El-Gayar

Background The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is considered to be the most daunting public health challenge in decades. With no effective treatments and with time needed to develop a vaccine, alternative approaches are being used to control this pandemic. Objective The objective of this paper was to identify topics, opinions, and recommendations about the COVID-19 pandemic discussed by medical professionals on the Twitter social medial platform. Methods Using a mixed methods approach blending the capabilities of social media analytics and qualitative analysis, we analyzed COVID-19–related tweets posted by medical professionals and examined their content. We used qualitative analysis to explore the collected data to identify relevant tweets and uncover important concepts about the pandemic using qualitative coding. Unsupervised and supervised machine learning techniques and text analysis were used to identify topics and opinions. Results Data were collected from 119 medical professionals on Twitter about the coronavirus pandemic. A total of 10,096 English tweets were collected from the identified medical professionals between December 1, 2019 and April 1, 2020. We identified eight topics, namely actions and recommendations, fighting misinformation, information and knowledge, the health care system, symptoms and illness, immunity, testing, and infection and transmission. The tweets mainly focused on needed actions and recommendations (2827/10,096, 28%) to control the pandemic. Many tweets warned about misleading information (2019/10,096, 20%) that could lead to infection of more people with the virus. Other tweets discussed general knowledge and information (911/10,096, 9%) about the virus as well as concerns about the health care systems and workers (909/10,096, 9%). The remaining tweets discussed information about symptoms associated with COVID-19 (810/10,096, 8%), immunity (707/10,096, 7%), testing (605/10,096, 6%), and virus infection and transmission (503/10,096, 5%). Conclusions Our findings indicate that Twitter and social media platforms can help identify important and useful knowledge shared by medical professionals during a pandemic.


2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (30_suppl) ◽  
pp. 184-184
Author(s):  
Erin Elizabeth Hahn ◽  
Tania Tang ◽  
Janet S. Lee ◽  
Corrine Munoz-Plaza ◽  
Joyce O Adesina ◽  
...  

184 Background: The initial ASCO “Top 5” list, created as part of the Choosing Wisely campaign, recommends against use of imaging for staging of early stage breast cancer in asymptomatic women at low risk for metastasis. The objective of this study was to measure and compare use of imaging for staging in two large integrated health care systems, Kaiser Permanente (KP) and Intermountain Healthcare (IH). We also sought to distinguish whether imaging was used for routine staging or for diagnostic purposes. Methods: We identified stage 0-IIB breast cancer patients diagnosed between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012 with first primary malignancy from tumor registries in three KP regions (Southern California, Northwest, and Mid-Atlantic) and IH. Using the KP and IH electronic health records, we identified use of imaging tests (PET, CT, bone scan) during the staging window (30 days prior to diagnosis up to initial surgery). We performed chart abstraction on a random sample of patients who received an imaging test to identify indication. Results: For the total sample of 10,014, mean age at diagnosis was 60 (range 22-99); with 21% stage 0, 47% stage I, 32% stage II. Overall, 8% of patients (792 patients) received at least one imaging test during the staging window, including 8% at KP and 6% at IH (p=0.0005). Chart abstraction (N=129) revealed that overall, almost half of all imaging tests (48%) were performed to evaluate a symptom, sign or prior imaging finding, including 55% at KP and 32% at IH. Conclusions: Use of imaging for staging of low-risk breast cancer was very low in both health care systems, with clinically trivial differences between them. Approximately half of imaging services were in response to a sign or symptom. Strategies to reduce use of imaging at staging for early stage breast cancer patients within these health care systems are unlikely to yield meaningful improvement. [Table: see text]


Author(s):  
Abdullah Wahbeh ◽  
Tareq Nasralah ◽  
Mohammad Al-Ramahi ◽  
Omar El-Gayar

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is considered to be the most daunting public health challenge in decades. With no effective treatments and with time needed to develop a vaccine, alternative approaches are being used to control this pandemic. OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper was to identify topics, opinions, and recommendations about the COVID-19 pandemic discussed by medical professionals on the Twitter social medial platform. METHODS Using a mixed methods approach blending the capabilities of social media analytics and qualitative analysis, we analyzed COVID-19–related tweets posted by medical professionals and examined their content. We used qualitative analysis to explore the collected data to identify relevant tweets and uncover important concepts about the pandemic using qualitative coding. Unsupervised and supervised machine learning techniques and text analysis were used to identify topics and opinions. RESULTS Data were collected from 119 medical professionals on Twitter about the coronavirus pandemic. A total of 10,096 English tweets were collected from the identified medical professionals between December 1, 2019 and April 1, 2020. We identified eight topics, namely actions and recommendations, fighting misinformation, information and knowledge, the health care system, symptoms and illness, immunity, testing, and infection and transmission. The tweets mainly focused on needed actions and recommendations (2827/10,096, 28%) to control the pandemic. Many tweets warned about misleading information (2019/10,096, 20%) that could lead to infection of more people with the virus. Other tweets discussed general knowledge and information (911/10,096, 9%) about the virus as well as concerns about the health care systems and workers (909/10,096, 9%). The remaining tweets discussed information about symptoms associated with COVID-19 (810/10,096, 8%), immunity (707/10,096, 7%), testing (605/10,096, 6%), and virus infection and transmission (503/10,096, 5%). CONCLUSIONS Our findings indicate that Twitter and social media platforms can help identify important and useful knowledge shared by medical professionals during a pandemic.


2004 ◽  
Vol 171 (4S) ◽  
pp. 42-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yair Latan ◽  
David M. Wilhelm ◽  
David A. Duchene ◽  
Margaret S. Pearle

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