Last Friday we received a hashtag submission from @NIH for #PrecisionMedicine and about 30 minutes later the tweet activity just exploded. We realized we had to take a closer look at this.
But even before I started looking at the data, something was clearly different and unexpected. In my own personal tweet stream I saw tweets from people there – but those people were all patients. Then this tweet from Nick answered some questions:
"Most importantly we've invited patients who have the most at stake" – @barackobama @WhiteHouse #PrecisionMedicine
— Nick Dawson (@nickdawson) January 30, 2015
We’ve authored research projects that highlight data showing patient participation at healthcare conferences, but this is a whole other level. Patient inclusiveness all the way up to the White House.
"Patients and advocates won't be on the sideline. They'll help us design this " – @BarackObama @WhiteHouse #PrecisionMedicine
— Nick Dawson (@nickdawson) January 30, 2015
So what does a precision medicine announcement from the White House look like? In the video below we have visualized a few hours of Friday’s event. It’s a dynamic network centrality graph. A node here is a participant in the social conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PrecisionMedicine. An eigenvector centrality algorithm determines the size of a node – the lager the more central to the conversation.
Precision Medicine and the Patients
Patients were front and center: At least 3 members of Society for Participatory Medicine (#S4PM) were present. The first rows at the event were reserved for patients and their families. President Obama was introduced by an e-patient.
Symplur Signals identified over 35 patients participating in the social conversation during these hours. And if you look very closely at the video you will see that some nodes are colored green – these are patients.
It’s amazing to observe such evidence of patient inclusiveness expand further and further into the realm of healthcare. Congrats to all those who worked for this.
One Response to “Patient inclusiveness now also at the White House – #PrecisionMedicine”
Denise Silber
Despite being based in Europe, I was totally struck by the milestone nature of the Friday Jan 30th announcement at the White House and in particular how it was announced. Hence a post on Doctors20.com about Patient-Powered Precision Medicine. The term “precision medicine” is off the charts on Google Trends as a result. You can see that in the post here. http://www.doctors20.com/2015/02/01/patient-powered-precision-medicine-white-house-world-doctors-2-0/ I really enjoyed your full treatment of the subject as well. Nice post.