title: Linking social media and medical record data: a study of adults presenting to an academic, urban emergency department.
abstract: Social media may offer insight into the relationship between an individual's health and their everyday life, as well as attitudes towards health and the perceived quality of healthcare services.
  
  
  
  To determine the acceptability to patients and potential utility to researchers of a database linking patients' social media content with their electronic medical record (EMR) data.
  
  
  
  Adult Facebook/Twitter users who presented to an emergency department were queried about their willingness to share their social media data and EMR data with health researchers for the purpose of building a databank for research purposes. Shared posts were searched for select terms about health and healthcare.
  
  
  
  Of the 5256 patients approached, 2717 (52%) were Facebook and/or Twitter users. 1432 (53%) of those patients agreed to participate in the study. Of these participants, 1008 (71%) consented to share their social media data for the purposes of comparing it with their EMR. Social media data consisted of 1 395 720 posts/tweets to Facebook and Twitter. Participants sharing social media data were slightly younger (29.1±9.8 vs 31.9±10.4 years old; p<0.001), more likely to post at least once a day (42% vs 29%; p=0.003) and more likely to present to the emergency room via self-arrival mode and have private insurance. Of Facebook posts, 7.5% (95% CI 4.8% to 10.2%) were related to health. Individuals with a given diagnosis in their EMR were significantly more likely to use terms related to that diagnosis on Facebook than patients without that diagnosis in their EMR (p<0.0008).
  
  
  
  Many patients are willing to share and link their social media data with EMR data. Sharing patients have several demographic and clinical differences compared with non-sharers. A database that merges social media with EMR data has the potential to provide insights about individuals' health and health outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Emergency Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA Penn Medicine Social Media and Health Innovation Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Padrez
authors.affiliation: Penn Medicine Social Media and Health Innovation Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Lyle
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ungar
authors.affiliation: Penn Medicine Social Media and Health Innovation Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Hansen Andrew
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.affiliation: Penn Medicine Social Media and Health Innovation Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Department of Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Penn Medicine Social Media and Health Innovation Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Operations and Information Management Department, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Shawndra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.affiliation: Penn Medicine Social Media and Health Innovation Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Tadas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Antanavicius
authors.affiliation: Penn Medicine Social Media and Health Innovation Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Department of Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Dana M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Penn Medicine Social Media and Health Innovation Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Crutchley
authors.affiliation: Penn Medicine Social Media and Health Innovation Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Asch
authors.affiliation: Penn Medicine Social Media and Health Innovation Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Department of Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Raina M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Merchant
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006786:Hospitals, Urban / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Chart review methodologies; Information technology; Social sciences