Brain Tumor Discussions on Twitter (#BTSM): Social Network Analysis

Brain Tumor Discussions on Twitter (#BTSM): Social Network Analysis. Feliciano, J. T, Salmi, L., Blotner, C., Hayden, A., Nduom, E. K, Kwan, B. M, Katz, M. S, & Claus, E. B Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(10):e22005, October, 2020.

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Background: The Brain Tumor Social Media (#BTSM) Twitter hashtag was founded in February 2012 as a disease-specific hashtag for patients with brain tumor. Objective: To understand #BTSM’s role as a patient support system, we describe user descriptors, growth, interaction, and content sharing. Methods: We analyzed all tweets containing #BTSM from 2012 to 2018 using the Symplur Signals platform to obtain data and to describe Symplur-defined user categories, tweet content, and trends in use over time. We created a network plot with all publicly available retweets involving #BTSM in 2018 to visualize key stakeholders and their connections to other users. Results: From 2012 to 2018, 59,764 unique users participated in #BTSM, amassing 298,904 tweets. The yearly volume of #BTSM tweets increased by 264.57% from 16,394 in 2012 to 43,373 in 2018 with #BTSM constantly trending in the top 15 list of disease hashtags, as well the top 15 list of tweet chats. Patient advocates generated the most #BTSM tweets (33.13%), while advocacy groups, caregivers, doctors, and researchers generated 7.01%, 4.63%, 3.86%, and 3.37%, respectively. Physician use, although still low, has increased over time. The 2018 network plot of retweets including #BTSM identifies a number of key stakeholders from the patient advocate, patient organization, and medical researcher domains and reveals the extent of their reach to other users. Conclusions: From its start in 2012, #BTSM has grown exponentially over time. We believe its growth suggests its potential as a global source of brain tumor information on Twitter for patients, advocates, patient organizations as well as health care professionals and researchers.

@article{feliciano_brain_2020,
	title = {Brain {Tumor} {Discussions} on {Twitter} (\#{BTSM}): {Social} {Network} {Analysis}},
	volume = {22},
	copyright = {Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License},
	issn = {1438-8871},
	shorttitle = {Brain {Tumor} {Discussions} on {Twitter} (\#{BTSM})},
	url = {http://www.jmir.org/2020/10/e22005/},
	doi = {10.2196/22005},
	abstract = {Background: The Brain Tumor Social Media (\#BTSM) Twitter hashtag was founded in February 2012 as a disease-specific hashtag for patients with brain tumor.
Objective: To understand \#BTSM’s role as a patient support system, we describe user descriptors, growth, interaction, and content sharing.
Methods: We analyzed all tweets containing \#BTSM from 2012 to 2018 using the Symplur Signals platform to obtain data and to describe Symplur-defined user categories, tweet content, and trends in use over time. We created a network plot with all publicly available retweets involving \#BTSM in 2018 to visualize key stakeholders and their connections to other users.
Results: From 2012 to 2018, 59,764 unique users participated in \#BTSM, amassing 298,904 tweets. The yearly volume of \#BTSM tweets increased by 264.57\% from 16,394 in 2012 to 43,373 in 2018 with \#BTSM constantly trending in the top 15 list of disease hashtags, as well the top 15 list of tweet chats. Patient advocates generated the most \#BTSM tweets (33.13\%), while advocacy groups, caregivers, doctors, and researchers generated 7.01\%, 4.63\%, 3.86\%, and 3.37\%, respectively. Physician use, although still low, has increased over time. The 2018 network plot of retweets including \#BTSM identifies a number of key stakeholders from the patient advocate, patient organization, and medical researcher domains and reveals the extent of their reach to other users.
Conclusions: From its start in 2012, \#BTSM has grown exponentially over time. We believe its growth suggests its potential as a global source of brain tumor information on Twitter for patients, advocates, patient organizations as well as health care professionals and researchers.},
	language = {en},
	number = {10},
	urldate = {2026-08-07},
	journal = {Journal of Medical Internet Research},
	author = {Feliciano, Josemari T and Salmi, Liz and Blotner, Charlie and Hayden, Adam and Nduom, Edjah K and Kwan, Bethany M and Katz, Matthew S and Claus, Elizabeth B},
	month = oct,
	year = {2020},
	pages = {e22005},
	url_paper={https://api.zotero.org/users/14490939/publications/items/Q8MB6R2R/file/view}
}

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Methods: We analyzed all tweets containing #BTSM from 2012 to 2018 using the Symplur Signals platform to obtain data and to describe Symplur-defined user categories, tweet content, and trends in use over time. We created a network plot with all publicly available retweets involving #BTSM in 2018 to visualize key stakeholders and their connections to other users. Results: From 2012 to 2018, 59,764 unique users participated in #BTSM, amassing 298,904 tweets. The yearly volume of #BTSM tweets increased by 264.57% from 16,394 in 2012 to 43,373 in 2018 with #BTSM constantly trending in the top 15 list of disease hashtags, as well the top 15 list of tweet chats. Patient advocates generated the most #BTSM tweets (33.13%), while advocacy groups, caregivers, doctors, and researchers generated 7.01%, 4.63%, 3.86%, and 3.37%, respectively. Physician use, although still low, has increased over time. The 2018 network plot of retweets including #BTSM identifies a number of key stakeholders from the patient advocate, patient organization, and medical researcher domains and reveals the extent of their reach to other users. Conclusions: From its start in 2012, #BTSM has grown exponentially over time. 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We created a network plot with all publicly available retweets involving \\#BTSM in 2018 to visualize key stakeholders and their connections to other users.\nResults: From 2012 to 2018, 59,764 unique users participated in \\#BTSM, amassing 298,904 tweets. The yearly volume of \\#BTSM tweets increased by 264.57\\% from 16,394 in 2012 to 43,373 in 2018 with \\#BTSM constantly trending in the top 15 list of disease hashtags, as well the top 15 list of tweet chats. Patient advocates generated the most \\#BTSM tweets (33.13\\%), while advocacy groups, caregivers, doctors, and researchers generated 7.01\\%, 4.63\\%, 3.86\\%, and 3.37\\%, respectively. Physician use, although still low, has increased over time. 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