Tweetfest 2018: A Week of Collaboration and Learning

Every May the Lilly Trials team looks forward to the #WhyWeDoResearch Tweetfest as an opportunity to collaborate with folks from around the globe who are involved in clinical research—from patients and caregivers to researchers and site staff. The week-long event includes two to three tweet chats each day, all focused on different topics and hosted by a variety of individuals and organizations (we hosted a chat on caregiving last year). The chats are full of meaningful conversation, insights and ideas on the current state of clinical research and future opportunities for improvement (here's an example from @VickyLShepherd of the types of insights that can be gained from #whywedoresearch chats.

Take a look at the numbers from this year's Tweetfest*, which was held during the week of May 14, and included participants from 10 different countries:

*There was another #WhyWeDoResearch event unrelated to Tweetfest during this time period, which accounted for a portion of the impressions, tweets, participants, etc. captured above.

While many interesting and important themes emerged from the Tweetfest discussions, we're highlighting just a few of our favorites below.

1. Health Literacy: A Multifaceted Concept
We know that health literacy skills help people to feel empowered as patients, especially when it comes to asking about and understanding clinical trial opportunities. While the definition of health literacy may sound straightforward, it can actually be nuanced and have multiple components.

Consider the idea of "health experience literacy"—extending the definition of health literacy to include an understanding for the actions that patients may potentially need or want to take as part of their health care experience.

Or "research literacy"—honing in on clinical research-specific aspects of health care that are important for patients and caregivers to understand in order to make informed decisions about participation.

A final health literacy take-away focuses on the importance of the words used to talk about clinical research and begs the question: How can we as a community shift the way we speak about clinical trials to better convey the value of research to potential participants and their caregivers?

2. Social Platforms: Many people turn to social media and online communities to learn about clinical research, but each channel provides unique value to different people.

From the explosion of social media platforms and online patient communities emerged new and effective methods of not only learning about clinical research, but making connections with others who are going through similar health experiences.

While some Tweetfest participants cited Facebook as their go-to social media channel...

...others turn to Twitter as a resource of health information and support.

We are fans of social media, of course, but the chat also uncovered some unintended consequences of social media content.

3. The #WhyWeDoResearch Campaign: A fantastic way to bring people from across the clinical research community together to share ideas and discuss potential ways to improve clinical research.

One of the chats during this year's Tweetfest focused on the #WhyWeDoResearch event itself. During the chat participants shared their feedback on Tweetfest—what they liked, potential improvements, and, best of all, appreciation for one another. Here are a few highlights:

Thank you to Hazel for hosting a wonderful Tweetfest event, and to each and every participant. We are always thankful for the opportunity to hear your insights and perspective on clinical research.

Blog post originally appeared on LillyPad.