Twitter-based health chats can be a very rewarding way to learn and interact with others that care about similar topics. Radiation oncology is a longstanding cornerstone of cancer care, and it’s exciting to participate in bringing online learning to people globally via #radonc starting as a journal club.
Why Twitter?
For those unfamiliar with it, Twitter can seem challenging. How do you fit something complex into 140 characters? It’s a challenge but Twitter has some real benefits:
Twitter has been used effectively for radiology (#JACR) and urology (#urojc) learning. With the help and guidance of Dr. Henry Woo, we are now ready to do the same for radiation oncology.
Getting Started
We are building on the successful model of #urojc, which recently reported a positive first year’s experience as a monthly journal club. We have chosen to try to fuse an open 48 hour free chat (asynchronous) with a vibrant, one-hour live chat similar to #hcldr, #hcsm, #meded and other very successful Twitter communities. Please let us know ways in which we can improve the model to work for the radiation oncology community, as it’s likely to differ from other specialties in some key ways.
In fact, after first discussing it, already we’ve had it evolve: there will now be live discussions in North America starting August 17, 8PM CST and then in Australia on August 18 thanks to Dr. Dion Forstner:
We’re prepared to adapt further, but first let’s try this model.
Once the chat is complete, we’ll aggregate into a transcript using Symplur, which organizes hashtags and give analytics and transcripts. Any other suggestions on how best to share would be greatly appreciated so that the information may be shared with others who can’t participate.
Prizes!
Similar to #urojc, we plan on recognizing participants as leaders. None of the organizers can win prizes; we want to recognize your contributions to learning and awareness of radiation oncology’s importance to cancer care.
Caveat Surfor
Do keep in mind that Twitter is public domain. We do have some suggested guidelines on participation. Here are some tips on getting started on social media, using Twitter, and for tweet chats. If in doubt, lurk and listen. But when you’re ready, speak up – we look forward to learning from you!