title: Use of Twitter at a major national pharmacy conference.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The results of a study of Twitter use by attendees of the 2013 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting (MCM) and other interested parties are presented.
  
  
  METHODS
  All messages posted on the social media platform Twitter under the official MCM "hashtag" (#ashpmidyear) during the five-day conference were archived and evaluated. Demographic data on authors of MCM-related tweets were collected by evaluating information provided by Twitter users in their public profiles. The archived messages were classified by content type.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1539 messages originating from 400 unique U.S.- and foreign-based Twitter accounts were posted under the MCM hashtag, an average of 3.84 tweets per account. The estimated rate of conference-related Twitter use by MCM attendees was 1.7%. One third of Twitter users posting conference-related tweets were identified as pharmacists; 86 (21.5%) and 65 (16.25%) tweets originated from accounts held by pharmacy students and pharmaceutical industry representatives, respectively. The authors of MCM-related tweets represented a broad cross-section of pharmacy practice settings and specialties. About 39% of the evaluated Twitter postings were classified as social, with about 31% of postings pertaining to specific MCM educational sessions and nearly 25% classified as advertising.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The majority of MCM-related tweets by onsite and remote Twitter users were social in nature or pertained to educational sessions held over the course of the conference.
authors.affiliation: Nadia I. Awad, Pharm.D., BCPS, is Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset, Somerville, NJ. Craig Cocchio, Pharm.D., BCPS, is Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, and Program Director, Postgraduate Year 2 Emergency Medicine Pharmacy Residency, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, NJ. nadia@pharmacy.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Nadia I
authors.initials: NI
authors.lastname: Awad
authors.affiliation: Nadia I. Awad, Pharm.D., BCPS, is Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset, Somerville, NJ. Craig Cocchio, Pharm.D., BCPS, is Clinical Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, and Program Director, Postgraduate Year 2 Emergency Medicine Pharmacy Residency, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, NJ.
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cocchio
mesh_terms: D003226:Congresses as Topic; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods*; D020407:Internet; D010604:Pharmacy; D061108:Social Media; D012957:Societies, Pharmaceutical; D014481:United States