What can physicians learn from social forums: Insights from an on-line self help and support group

Sy Miin Chow; Akhil Kumar; Ann Ouyang; Bu Zhong; Jungmin Lee; Nicholas Inverso

doi:10.1109/ICCABS.2017.8114302

What can physicians learn from social forums: Insights from an on-line self help and support group

Sy Miin Chow^*, Akhil Kumar, Ann Ouyang, Bu Zhong, Jungmin Lee, Nicholas Inverso

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Interactive Media

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceeding › Conference proceeding › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study we try to understand how physicians can benefit from a social healthcare forum for a chronic digestive disease like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Based on over half a million posts over 16 years, we compared the frequencies of selected keywords and their concurrent and time-lagged concordance with publication trends in the scientific medical literature. We found reciprocal associations between publication and patient positing trends in most of the keywords considered, and some instances where online users' interest in particular keywords may be lagging or leading the publication trends in the medical literature. Results from this study suggest that online forums provide an alternative, personalized platform for patients to express and address person-specific concerns (e.g., interest in alternative treatments, life stress), which may in turn improve patient/physician relationship and management of this poorly understood condition. In addition, previously unrecognized associations of symptoms as described by a large number of patients may offer insights into pathophysiologic processes that may not be recognized during the management of individual patients.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2017 IEEE 7th International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS 2017
Publisher	IEEE
Number of pages	6
ISBN (Electronic)	9781538625941, 9781538625934
ISBN (Print)	9781538625958
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCABS.2017.8114302
Publication status	Published - Oct 2017
Event	7th IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS 2017 - Orlando, United States Duration: 19 Oct 2017 → 21 Oct 2017 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/8104489/proceeding

Publication series

Name	IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS
Volume	2017-October
ISSN (Print)	2164-229X
ISSN (Electronic)	2473-4659

Conference

Conference	7th IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS 2017
Country/Territory	United States
City	Orlando
Period	19/10/17 → 21/10/17
Internet address	https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/conhome/8104489/proceeding

Scopus Subject Areas

Biomedical Engineering
Computational Theory and Mathematics

User-Defined Keywords

hidden topic model
IBS
posts
Power Law
social forums
social network
threads

Access to Document

10.1109/ICCABS.2017.8114302

Cite this

Chow, S. M., Kumar, A., Ouyang, A., Zhong, B., Lee, J., & Inverso, N. (2017). What can physicians learn from social forums: Insights from an on-line self help and support group. In 2017 IEEE 7th International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS 2017 (IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS; Vol. 2017-October). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCABS.2017.8114302

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title = "What can physicians learn from social forums: Insights from an on-line self help and support group",

abstract = "In this study we try to understand how physicians can benefit from a social healthcare forum for a chronic digestive disease like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Based on over half a million posts over 16 years, we compared the frequencies of selected keywords and their concurrent and time-lagged concordance with publication trends in the scientific medical literature. We found reciprocal associations between publication and patient positing trends in most of the keywords considered, and some instances where online users' interest in particular keywords may be lagging or leading the publication trends in the medical literature. Results from this study suggest that online forums provide an alternative, personalized platform for patients to express and address person-specific concerns (e.g., interest in alternative treatments, life stress), which may in turn improve patient/physician relationship and management of this poorly understood condition. In addition, previously unrecognized associations of symptoms as described by a large number of patients may offer insights into pathophysiologic processes that may not be recognized during the management of individual patients.",

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author = "Chow, {Sy Miin} and Akhil Kumar and Ann Ouyang and Bu Zhong and Jungmin Lee and Nicholas Inverso",

note = "Funding Information: We acknowledge Jeffrey Roberts, Founder of IBSgroup.org for helpful discussions, and Manoj Velumani and Fan Yang for data analysis assistance. Funding for this study was provided by NSF grant SES-1357666 and NIH grant R01GM105004, Penn State Quantitative Social Sciences Initiative and UL TR000127 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. This research was also supported by a Fellowship from the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) at Penn State. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 IEEE.; 7th IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS 2017 ; Conference date: 19-10-2017 Through 21-10-2017",

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Chow, SM, Kumar, A, Ouyang, A, Zhong, B, Lee, J & Inverso, N 2017, What can physicians learn from social forums: Insights from an on-line self help and support group. in 2017 IEEE 7th International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS 2017. IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS, vol. 2017-October, IEEE, 7th IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS 2017, Orlando, United States, 19/10/17. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCABS.2017.8114302

What can physicians learn from social forums: Insights from an on-line self help and support group. / Chow, Sy Miin; Kumar, Akhil; Ouyang, Ann et al.
2017 IEEE 7th International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS 2017. IEEE, 2017. (IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS; Vol. 2017-October).

Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceeding › Conference proceeding › peer-review

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T1 - What can physicians learn from social forums

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AU - Chow, Sy Miin

AU - Kumar, Akhil

AU - Ouyang, Ann

AU - Zhong, Bu

AU - Lee, Jungmin

AU - Inverso, Nicholas

N1 - Funding Information: We acknowledge Jeffrey Roberts, Founder of IBSgroup.org for helpful discussions, and Manoj Velumani and Fan Yang for data analysis assistance. Funding for this study was provided by NSF grant SES-1357666 and NIH grant R01GM105004, Penn State Quantitative Social Sciences Initiative and UL TR000127 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. This research was also supported by a Fellowship from the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) at Penn State. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 IEEE.

PY - 2017/10

Y1 - 2017/10

N2 - In this study we try to understand how physicians can benefit from a social healthcare forum for a chronic digestive disease like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Based on over half a million posts over 16 years, we compared the frequencies of selected keywords and their concurrent and time-lagged concordance with publication trends in the scientific medical literature. We found reciprocal associations between publication and patient positing trends in most of the keywords considered, and some instances where online users' interest in particular keywords may be lagging or leading the publication trends in the medical literature. Results from this study suggest that online forums provide an alternative, personalized platform for patients to express and address person-specific concerns (e.g., interest in alternative treatments, life stress), which may in turn improve patient/physician relationship and management of this poorly understood condition. In addition, previously unrecognized associations of symptoms as described by a large number of patients may offer insights into pathophysiologic processes that may not be recognized during the management of individual patients.

AB - In this study we try to understand how physicians can benefit from a social healthcare forum for a chronic digestive disease like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Based on over half a million posts over 16 years, we compared the frequencies of selected keywords and their concurrent and time-lagged concordance with publication trends in the scientific medical literature. We found reciprocal associations between publication and patient positing trends in most of the keywords considered, and some instances where online users' interest in particular keywords may be lagging or leading the publication trends in the medical literature. Results from this study suggest that online forums provide an alternative, personalized platform for patients to express and address person-specific concerns (e.g., interest in alternative treatments, life stress), which may in turn improve patient/physician relationship and management of this poorly understood condition. In addition, previously unrecognized associations of symptoms as described by a large number of patients may offer insights into pathophysiologic processes that may not be recognized during the management of individual patients.

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Chow SM, Kumar A, Ouyang A, Zhong B, Lee J, Inverso N. What can physicians learn from social forums: Insights from an on-line self help and support group. In 2017 IEEE 7th International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS 2017. IEEE. 2017. (IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences, ICCABS). doi: 10.1109/ICCABS.2017.8114302

What can physicians learn from social forums: Insights from an on-line self help and support group

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Scopus Subject Areas

User-Defined Keywords

Access to Document

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