Reach and Power of Physician-Initiated Tweets in a Twitter Inflammatory Bowel Disease Community

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) specialist Twitter engagement and thematic content was assessed. Methods: The nature of interaction between IBD specialists and users who responded to them was analyzed based on (1) content analysis of stakeholders who responded to them; (2) nature of interaction through a manual thematic content analysis of IBD specialist tweets and responses; (3) prominence of interaction by employing descriptive analysis and statistical inferences relative to the number of replies, likes, and retweets. Analyzed samples included of tweets (n = 320) compiled from 16 IBD specialists, and associated replies (n = 299), retweets (n = 869), and likes (n = 4068). Results: Healthcare professionals (HCPs) more often engaged with peer-HCPs, compared to other stakeholders. When it comes to the nature of exchanges, of original tweets, the most common content was for knowledge sharing (58%) and endorsement (28%). In the knowledge sharing category, research accounted for more than half of those tweets (53%). Of replies, knowledge sharing occurred most frequently with a subtheme of IBD management (62%). Conclusions: HCP-HCP Twitter engagement was more frequent than HCP-other Twitter stakeholder interaction. The primary purpose for this engagement was found to obtain real-time information, professionally network, and disseminate research. Lay Summary The nature and content of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) physician engagement on Twitter was critically analyzed. Clinicians more often engage their peers, than patients, with the objective to share new educational updates, disseminate research findings, and provide IBD patient management commentary.