Docs Could Use Twitter to Monitor Patients

twitterResearchers from the University of California think that doctors could use the social network Twitter to monitor and eventually check the spread of diseases.

According to Preventive Medicine magazine, the scientists and the Virginia Tech firm have already analyzed the way Twitter helps identify HIV cases by using the location data of the tweets and of the notified HIV carriers.

The study found that the area of tweets match the areas where the highest number of HIV cases in the United States are registered.

An algorithm helped them find that of the more than 550 million tweets analyzed, some 10,000 messages included words or phrases suggesting a risky sexual behavior, and then the researcher compared the data to the geographical distribution of patients.

Sean Young, a coauthor of this study, stated that it focuses the prediction of behavior based on words and phrases suggesting that the people behave or are about to act in a given way.

Behavior is important, as it allows us to use the psychology of tweets to potentially predict the future behavior and evolution of the disease, added Young. (PL)

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